A tempting muse...

Steamy Surprise

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:14:18 GMT

It had been a tense few weeks since the students for Atia's sacrifice she'd culled from the herd had disappeared and the history teacher fingered for the blame. Everyone had been on edge and Leah had kept a close eye out for any signs that people suspected her. When none were displayed by the time of winter break, the hybrid relaxed and continued her plans.

Everything was running smoothly. She'd built a small core of dedicated followers who truly worshiped her as a deity, including the Principal, Vice Principal, and Night Janitor in addition to the students. The school was practically under her thumb, and she was putting less effort into keeping up appearances, especially during winter break when the school was officially closed except for extra curricular activities.

The hybrid's head lolled as she lounged in the steam bath wearing nothing but a sated smile, with two students from the football team at her feet. The studs were exhausted from a feeding session that had gone a little deeper than she'd intended due to her being hungrier than she'd thought. Things were going well indeed, and it was just the first step on the road to godhood.

Denise Starnes, fifteen-year old sophomore, seldom used the steam bath in the gym of Comanche High School. She hadn't lost all of her adolescent chubbiness yet, and self-consciousness kept her out of the facility unless she was the only one there. But she'd managed to get an okay to use it during winter break, and so she let the door close soundlessly behind her before starting across the waxed tile floor. The small squeaks of her tennis shoes sounded very loud in the silence.

She was worried about her brother. Ryan had been acting weird for weeks now, and that was even before all those kids had vanished. Some of them had been Denise's friends, freshmen from her geometry class. A grief counselor had been called to the school after the history teacher, Mr. Avery, was arrested. She had been to see her a couple of times. Things were better now, but it still had her looking over her shoulder now and then.

The door to the sauna creaked a little when she pushed it open, and the girl stopped when she realized it wasn't empty after all. She vaguely recognized Ian Weathers, who was a fullback on the football team, but she didn't know the other boy. Ridiculously, she actually wondered why all three of them, including Ms. Anderson, were naked, and then she realized she was really wondering why the three of them were naked together. There was a rule somewhere about that, wasn't there? One that said a teacher shouldn't be naked if they were with two students.

"Umm..."

More of a sound than an actual word, indicating Denise's flustered state. Maybe it would be better to go away and come back. Or go away and not come back at all. Ms. Anderson looked at lot better without clothes than she did. In another situation, she would have taken the time to be embarrassed and self-conscious about her own percieved inadequacy.

Leah had not heard the creaking of the door over the hiss of the steam. She was still in the afterglow of feeding from such tasty sources of energy, and had been ignoring all the little sounds in the room, until the noise emerged from the girl's throat.

Her head snapped right up and her eyes locked on that of the teenager's. She knew who it was, Ryan's annoying younger sister. The girl had been keeping the progress she'd made with the boy at a slower rate than she would have liked. If not for the girl he would already be acknowledging her outright as a goddess rather than just imagining he was in love with her.

How in hell had she gotten in here? Grace and Ruben were supposed to have secured the doors after she'd brought the food into the building.

Okay, time to think here. What to do? Her powers didn't work as well on women as they did on men but maybe she could work enough to confuse the kid about what she saw. If not, maybe she'd just drain her too.

Energy from women didn't taste very good, but it still could be done.

"Hello Denise..." Leah rose up slowly from the bench, pumping the pheromones out furiously. She smiled at the girl. "I guess we're both surprised to see each other, aren't we?"

"Uh, yeah. I was just kind of..." Denise faltered, a frown-line creasing her brow. What was that weird smell? She looked at where Ian still lay asleep on the floor, then quickly averted her gaze to look at the wall instead.

"I got this pass to use the sauna from Mrs. Pearce," the girl continued, holding up the crumpled sklip of paper where she'd closed her hand around it. It was really warm in here. Maybe one of them had turned up the steam? Maybe that was why Ian and Whatever-His-Name-Was had gone to sleep. Because if she didn't know better, the whole naked thing would make her think...no, that was just ew. Yeah, Ms. Anderson was pretty, but she was old, at least twenty-five. Besides, she was a teacher and that could get her into trouble.

She took an uncertain step into the room. wrinkling her permission slip further. The older woman's eyes looked weird. Maybe going away was a better idea after all. "Do you want me to leave? I could just..."

"I see," Leah closed the distance between them and took the permission slip to inspect it. It was genuine, damn. Marcia Pearce would have to be dealt with, this was an intolerable situation for the teacher to be issuing permission slips for the athletic areas without Leah's knowledge. "No, you can stay. I'll send the boys out, the poor things were exhausted after exercising in weight room. We ducked in here before going to the showers and I'm afraid the steam room has made them sleepy." It wasn't the best alibi but it would have to do and hopefully the girl would be too distracted by the pheromones to think much about it.

She roused the two young men, taking care to not show too much affection. The hybrid sent the groggy eighteen year olds out of the room with a reminder to get dressed. She did briefly consider letting them stay and having nature take its course with the worked up teens, but it could prove to be more trouble than it was worth and shooed them out.

"There, now its just us girls."

Do not look, Denise reminded herself. If you look, you're going to feel weird, and you don't even know those guys. Both boys were walking like they were drunk, and the girl looked down at the floor, feeling decidedly creeped out. She didn't even know why she felt creeped out, but she did.

"Are you having a good break from school?" she asked Ms. Anderson politely. She rarely spoke to her teachers outside of class, and the whole thing was just....uncomfortable. Just us 'girls'? Why did she profoundly not like the sound of that?

"Are they going to be okay? Will they have to go to the office or anything?"

"They'll be fine," Leah replied absently, not worried about them. "A cold shower will do wonders to wake them up and afterwards I'm sure they'll drive themselves home. I won't say anything...after all they didn't do anything wrong."

No, they hadn't done anything wrong. In fact they'd done quite a bit right. Both young men had been surprisingly skilled when Leah had first taken them in under her wing so to speak.

"My break is going well, Denise." Leah told the girl, handing back the permission slip and trying to put her at ease. "Thank you for asking. Teaching is such a rewarding profession though, I'm looking forward to having everyone back for the spring semester."

"Yeah," the teenager agreed with a nod, tucking some stray hair behind her ear. "Things have been better now that the shock has passed. The counseling probably helped, though. Mom was talking about taking us out of school for a while, but she and Dad talked it over and decided to leave things alone. It would have been really hard, I guess, because they both work. I like it here, though. Most of the time."

She shrugged a little, feeling slightly more at ease. Only slightly, maybe, but the lack of naked guys in the room had helped. Why had they been naked? Naked weight-lifting? You'd think they'd at least have on towels or something. Then again, guys didn't seem to have the same body issues girls did. Ryan had taken to going without a shirt when he did the yardwork on weekends, like he was some big deal. It was enough to make her roll the eyes out of her head.

"I hope the kids you've been teaching haven't had too many problems after what happened."

"It was a shock to everyone," Leah responded, feeling a bit more comfortable now that she had the girl alone. The boys she had under her control well enough to know that she wouldn't have to worry about them backing up Denise's story, which meant it was just the two of them now. With a bit of luck she could pass it off as the ramblings of messed up teenager.

"Those poor children...my heart goes out to their families." She was more frustrated than anything else. The Plan had never accounted for the needs of a mass sacrifice and it brought attention to the school that she didn't want. But Atia would not be denied and Leah wasn't about to sacrifice herself for a bunch of snot nosed and undeveloped teens.

She regretted not adding the girl to the list. Denise Starnes was trouble, Leah could smell it.

Maybe she could ask Ms. Anderson about Ryan. The teacher seemed nice enough now, not creepy at all. And everyone had been in such a mood to help after the initial news about the disappearances broke. Possibly her brother would have told her something.

"I'm a little worried still," she confided to the older woman. "About my brother, I mean. I think maybe..." She paused, glancing at the closed door before folding her hands together anxiously. "I think he's doing drugs again."

She wasn't really supposed to talk about this, probably, not here. When her parents had been in counseling they had spoken to their therapist about it since it had been one of the causes of strain between them. This was not a therapy session. But she was worried, and Ryan was acting like a bigger spaz than usual. She didn't want to have to move again. Sure, her Dad had gotten a cool new job, and yay for that, but Ryan had been such an obnoxious tool because of the pot. And her mother? God, her mother would crap a brick sideways.

"Do you think he's okay? He's not having problems with the football coach, is he?"

"I'm sure he's fine," Leah assured the teen. If anything she wanted to get the girl off her brother's back so he'd be more malleable, he figured into her plans in a big way and she didn't want the girl interfering.

"I know the Coach and he have had their differences, but the season's over and everyone's agreed to work hard for next year." The hybrid wondered if she should just drain the girl and have Bickerstaff dispose of the body?

After a moment's contemplation she decided against it. Having the girl disappear now would raise too many questions and bring suspicion back on her, it was simpler that she live. A pity Denise would never know how fortunate she was.

"I'm certain he isn't on drugs, I've been trained spot that sort of thing." It was complete bullshit, she hadn't been trained to do anything, but the girl didn't know that.

"He really wants to play next year, so he's been trying to behave himself," Denise explained. "I guess its pretty tough on him, too. He's a dork, but he's my brother, y'know?" Maybe the teacher was right. There was still the tiniest niggling doubt, but it was quiet right now.

"Sorry if I was bothering you before," she said, making it her apology. "I didn't even know anyone would be in here. Usually I don't use this room, not when other people are around." Self-conscious now, looking down at her legs, which she always thought were too plump. Her mom kept saying she'd grow out of it, calling it the last of her baby-fat stage, but she wasn't a baby anymore, she was fifteen. Being a girl sucked sometimes.

"Not at all," Leah could tell the girl was self conscious about her figure. Fortunately that was something Leah had never had to worry about, never having had an 'ugly duckling' stage as a teenager. She'd developed early and kept on developing, there'd been no trouble holding the attention of the opposite sex.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable earlier, I was brought up in a very...open...household, something like a commune I guess. Sometimes I forget that other people aren't comfortable in their skins." It was another line of complete bullshit, but one that people could believe.

She gestured toward the girl's own figure. "You're going to be beating the boys off with a stick by the time you're in your senior year, you'll see. It's amazing what two years can do to a girl." Leah continued to pump out the pheromones, wanting the girl too worked up to think straight before the hybrid left her alone.

And there was that smell again, and it was making her head feel funny. Dizzy, almost, as if she hadn't eaten anything all day. Ryan. Drugs. Her parents. Naked football players. It was all starting to jumble up in her head in the weirdest way.

"I think..." It seemed to be heating up in here again, getting way too hot, and Denise cleared her throat awkwardly. "I think I should probably be getting out of here. The steam seems to be on high today. How do you stand it?" She fanned herself a little, but that didn't help much, just seemed to make the steam swirl faster.

"Glad you're having a good break," the girl said, pushing herself to her feet with an effort. Maybe some fresh air would help. She didn't want to end up asleep on the floor like Ian and his friend, that would be embarrassing.

"Let me walk you out," Leah insisted, moving toward the door. The signs were all there, the pheromones were doing their job getting the girl worked up and confused. It was a pity there wasn't a boy around, in her current state Denise probably would have been spreading her legs in a heartbeat.

The hybrid stepped out of the steam bath and wrapped a towel around herself. Where the hell were Grace and Ruben?

Getting up to speed

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:38:37 GMT

One thing about pretending to be human among a bunch of kids, Grace had decided, was that it gave her the chance to be the 'cool parent'. The school was pretty posh compared to the place she'd grown up in as a human, but the students there still did things like skip classes to go smoke behind the gym and hang out down by the athletics field to gossip and drink the occasional beer after the final bell had rung for the day. Sitting indifferently on the bottom portion of the bleachers, the vampire watched the track team continue their practice with a cigarette in her mouth, laughing internally at the way things worked sometimes.

She and Ruben had been barred from eating the students unless they really got out of hand, but all in all this was one of the softest gigs she'd worked. Adventures in babysitting. In a way she was going to be sorry when it was over. Grace took the smoke out of her mouth and dropped it beneath the stands, figuring she could sneak some beers in tomorrow. It was almost like being in high school again.

Leah meandered toward the track team, in no hurry to start the practice as the students performed their warm ups. The fourteen sacrificial victims had been chosen out of Mr. Jackson's fourth period freshman history class, and it was only a matter of a few days before their short lives would come to an end. It bothered her slightly but it boiled down to being them or her, and she'd choose herself every day.

She spotted Grace at the bleachers and made her way over to the vampire. It was good to have vampiric security even if it hadn't been necessary so far: Leah was still amazed at how easily people overlooked warning signs to see what they wanted to see, this school had been easy pickings.

"Grace," she greeted the vampire with a friendly smile. The older female might technically be an employee, but the hybrid was under no illusion that the vampire was a subordinate. Grace was an independent contractor and it was better to keep her happy than to piss her off unnecessarily. "Everything going smoothly tonight?"

She looked around. "I don't see your partner, he decide to take the night off?"

"He's around here somewheres," Grace answered distractedly, the tip of her tongue poking out of her mouth as she watched a smallish blond boy going through a series of stretches. One of Leah's? Probably. Ah well, she wasn't into pedophilia anyway. He was cute, though. "I think he went to use the phone or somethin'."

She lit another cigarette, tucking it into her mouth after blowing a smoke ring into the air above her head. "How much longer we gonna be around?" she asked without looking at the hybrid. "Not that I'm complainin', understand, I guess I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. People are touchy about their kids, don't matter how much times have changed. You'd never have pulled somethin' like this off back in my day."

The vampire shrugged one shoulder, cast her gaze in the direction of the parking lot. "The fox guarding the henhouse, that's me."

"I won't mind if a stray loner or two goes missing Grace," Leah shrugged, watching the students perform their warmups and mentally sorting them into various categories of desirability. The group she was working hardest on was begining to come around to seeing her as something out of the ordinary, something to be cherished, protected and obeyed. A good nucleus to start with, and maybe she'd have them invite their fathers to one of the sessions during Christmas break.

"As for how much longer we'll be around, I don't know. At least through the start of the next semester, assuming current events don't force me to change my plans. After that we'll see. If I can keep the illusion up I see no reason to leave anytime soon."

"Current events? Like politics?" It was kind of a joke. Grace slouched against the wooden bleachers, looked up at the darkened sky. "Unless somebody's raisin' a stink about how hands-on you've been with the kids, and that might be somethin' to take care of. Are there issues?"

She looked back across the field, squinting slightly against the flourescent lights surrounding the track. "Bet it costs a chunk of change to keep a place like this running," she remarked idly. "Back home we'd be lucky to get new books every few years, much less a whole new gym facility whenever folks felt like shellin' out cash for it." There was a slight pause, and the vampire looked sideways and then up at Leah where the hybrid stood. "I did go to school, y'know," she said, as if anticipating any possible snark.

"So what about these current events?"

"Of course you went to school," Leah didn't presume to know just how old the vampiress was, but she must be young enough to have been around for the public school system. "Trust me I know all about how hard up schools could be, I was shuttled around eight different public schools in tweleve years and all of them sucked. If I hadn't been determined to at least get a diploma I probably would have quit school and started stripping full time by my sixteenth birthday."

She eyed one of the more well built boys who wasn't actually on the track team, but was there to support a friend of his. He looked good enough to eat, maybe she'd take him inside for a 'private session' right after practice.

"Current events as in there's a new high bitch in town, Elfleda's been replaced and the new girl is out to make a statement." She lowered her voice to a mumble only Grace's vampiric hearing could detect. "Supposed to deliver fourteen sacrificial lambs as soon as possible, I arranged for it to happen on the field trip on monday. The teacher is going to take the blame, courtesy of our good lawyer friends."

To her credit, Grace just lifted an eyebrow, but she did focus on Leah a bit more intently. "Elfleda," she echoed, and smoke escaped from her nostrils to punctuate the sentence. "That's a big shit in a little bowl. She's been voted off the island? Huh. Guess that's divorce supernatural style. You must be comin' up in the world." Pause. "Or goin' down in it, dependin' on your view."

Her eyes wandered back to the boys, and she wondered which of them might be unfortunate enough to draw that particular lot. Dead was dead as far as she was concerned. Either way, anyone could turn out to be meat if they were unlucky enough. She turned an intrigued look in the half-succubus' direction.

"You havin' issues?" she asked quietly, sounding vaguely amused. "It's the price of doin' business, kid. Even if it costs you a meal. You doin' the cutting yerself?"

"It was them or me, and if that's what it costs to stay upright and mobile rather than a pile of parts then so be it." Leah replied, her voice equally quiet but with more of a resigned tone. "I selected them but I'm not doing the cutting, Atia has someone else in mind for that. I figured I can afford to lose the freshmen, but I tried to pick the ones with the least influental families or the least potential. Cull the weak and stupid from the herd and all that shit."

"I could do without the attention," she admitted to Grace's other question. "I may be a horny little thing, but I'm not a stupid horny little thing. When someone slams an axe next to my head without even trying and says jump, I'm gonna say 'how high?'"

"Sounds like a fun girl." Grace's voice still carried that slight note of amusement, and the soles of her boots thumped hollowly against the bleachers as she pondered taking off in the next little while to get a bottle of something or other. Ruben was always cranky after dealing with the kids, he might want to go out and raise some hell. They could get drunk and kick some ass, have some fun. With luck, they would not run into Leah's new pal.

"Hi, Laura." A new voice distracted the vampire from her thoughts, and she looked up to see Ryan hovering just on the edges of their conversation. She flicked a look at the other woman, wondered if she should get up and move. Last thing she needed was to get in the path of some slobbering kid. God save her from open displays of affection unless she was the object of them.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" the teenager asked, doing a nervous, antsy sort of thing with his hands, as if he wasn't quite sure how they'd ended up attached to the ends of his arms. "It's important. It's about, um...homework." Shift, shuffle, fret. "Please?"

Great, he was whining. Grace was actually a little embarrassed for him. Sack up, for Christ's sake, she thought, pretending to be invisible. Be a man, will ya?

Leah arched an eyebrow at Ryan. Wasn't he a horny devil tonight? She'd discussed 'homework' with him just the other day, it wouldn't do to drain him too much.

The hybrid glanced over at Grace, then craned her head up to get a good look at the teenager. He was a tall one, six foot one and nearly two hundred pounds of muscle. If the kid had applied himself better before this he wouldn't be second string on the football team, but lucky for her he'd been held back a year and thus was ripe for the picking.

She decided to play with her food just a little. "I'll be happy to, what about the assignment are you having trouble with? I'll do what I can to help." Hopefully Grace wouldn't roll her eyes too much.

"Um, I got this calculus assignment," Ryan stammered, his ears reddening. "Coach says if I don't pull my grade above a C this semester he's gonna bench me again. Dad's on my back a lot about me not doing my homework, but I can't seem to concentrate on it. Would you have some time later?"

Calculus my ass, Grace thought. Just being this close to the two of them made her itch. The kid was walking stupidity looking for a place to land. Leading with his dick. Ugh.

"I just remembered," she said, startling the boy into remembering that there were actually other people still on the planet. "I got a thing tonight, so I'm gonna go haul Ruben away from whatever it is he's doing and go do that. I'll catch ya'll later." She got up from her seat, dusted the back of her jeans off, then made eye contact with Leah. "Keep track of that other business, huh? A balls-up where that's concerned is in no one's best interest."

"Uh, yeah, bye," the teenager said to her retreating back, then swung his full attention back to Laura. "I tried to call you last night," he said, lowering his voice. "Your machine picked up. Is everything okay? I was a little worried."

Leah nodded to Grace as the vampire took her leave. "Don't worry, that's one thing I'm going to be keeping a close eye on. Tell Ruben I said to have fun."

She returned her attention to Ryan and put a sorrowful look on her face. "I'm sorry Ryan, I was out running errands and had my cell turned off." The teen was getting a little annoying, after tonight she might have to put him in his place. She was the one calling the shots and it was best he remembered that.

The hybrid looked toward the track team, then back toward Ryan. "I think we've got enough time for a quick conversation...in private. The assistant coach and Team Captain can handle things for a little while." She lowered her voice and took on a more sultry tone.

"Now why don't we go see if we can't do something about that pesky math problem."

Shifting Blame

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 03:17:06 GMT

Leah had arranged to meet Marie after school was out and the students were on their way home from any 'extra curricular' activities she'd conducted that afternoon. The hybrid was in a bind: she needed to provide Atia with fourteen kids to sacrifice and needed to do it in a way that couldn't be traced back to her.

It was easy to select the kids. The hard part of the pulling off the sacrifice was arranging everything else and that's where Wolfram and Hart came in handy.

She'd taken the time to change out of her drab school teacher garb and put on something more stylish before meeting the lawyer at the firm's office.

"Corruption's suiting you, I see," Marie spoke, once the pair had exchanged greetings. When the door had closed, it was Marie's personal inner sanctum. Security cameras notwithstanding, of course. Their last meeting had involved helping to set up Leah's new identity and setting up an agreement for body disposal. "And so are the teenagers," she added with a wink.

Part of Marie was interested in pregnancy. That went without saying. No protection was 100%, unless it involved surgical removal.

And for Wolfram and Hart, there were even ways around that.

Nevertheless, it would be much more beneficial for Leah to have a demonic partner. A human father for the offspring would result in something a lot less capable than Leah. Still, 25% was better than nothing, right?

"So, what can I do for ya'?"

"What can I say?" Leah smirked as she settled into a chair across from the lawyer's desk. "They might not have a lot of experience, but they do have energy. And the enthusiasm!" The smirk turned into a full fledged grin as she remembered the session she'd had with one of the seniors the day before

So far things were going well in her little project to create a band of worshipers, but nothing worth doing was ever as easy as it looks.

"I don't know if you've heard, but there's a new Bride in town and she's out for blood...literally. I need to arrange for a sacrifice, fourteen kids to be delivered as soon as possible, but I need to make sure the authorities can't trace the victims back to me." It went without saying that the authorities would go apeshit when fourteen kids went missing, and anyone with any connections to them would be under close scrutiny.

Marie blinked in quick succession, then encapsulated her thoughts in a cartoonish, "Doink!"

Well, this was certainly unexpected...

"From cautious innocent to Jackie the Ripper in just a few months? Wow... Whoever this 'Bride' is, you're gonna' have to get me in touch to thank them."

There was a slight creak, as the pleasantly surprised lawyer leaned back a little in her black leather chair. Talk about a turn-up for the books. This sounded damn near unprecedented. Maybe there was something to be said for influential bloodlines, after all. At least, the tainted ones.

"So, um... Assuming Uma Thurman wasn't recently given fangs, dare I ask who the 'Bride' is married to?"

"I was never 'innocent' Marie," Leah gave the lawyer a dirty look. "Inexperienced maybe, and certainly ignorant, but not innocent."

She shrugged, trying not to show the fact that it did bother her a little to be sending fourteen kids to their deaths. They'd never done anything to her, and it was going to bring more heat than she even wanted to think about down on the school, but...

"It's either them or me, and I don't intend to have my gullet slit on some altar because the new Bitch in town is looking to make a statement. You've heard of Elfleda, right? There's been a divorce, because I got a visit from Leviathan's new wife, Atia, and she's definitely a more 'hands on' sort of girl if you know what I mean."

"Ah... The real 'L-word'," Marie smiled, recognizing that title instantly. "There's a whole bunch of other names for it, of course... We like to call it 'the Architect'."

Now Marie truly was intrigued. Her little Leah had been given a visit? Damn... Because that meant two things: Firstly, Leah really did have a lot of potential and, secondly, knowing how these kinds of things tended to work, she might also be coming under observation.

Ooh, goody... Career advancement, here I come.

"Well, all thing considered, Leah, you, uh... Let's just say, I can get a whole lot more wheels greased around here for you, after hearing that. In fact, we can even have your little virgins shipped in from elsewhere. I'm sure it'll help deflect attention away from your morning registers, so to speak. In fact, why not do it here? We'll even provide a five-star ritual room, complete with altar! No price involved - call it a discount, hon'," the redhead urged with a smiling crinkle of nose.

"I'm not doing the sacrifice myself," Leah corrected gladly, "I'm just required to provide the goods." She may have become cold blooded about this sort of thing, but that didn't mean she wanted to slit the throats of fourteen kids. Her killings were more of a primal thing, a feeding out of need.

This was just slaughter, pure and simple.

Marie seemed awfully helpful when she mentioned 'the Architect', and no price? There had to be a price, and Leah's eyes narrowed as she leaned forward toward the lawyer. "Maybe I'm not following you Marie, but are you saying there was no extra cost for the room, or were you offering to arrange for the kids free as well?" Leah asked, looking for hidden strings attached to this too good to be true offer.

Marie issued a thoughtful little, "Oh..." Then another, "Oh." Before one more final, "Oh."

It was all in reaction to the news of Leah not being personally in charge of doing the dirty deed. It was rather disappointing, actually. Darn... She had the cutest robes they could have worn, too.

Not matching, of course. That would never do.

"Well, both, but... If all you're doing is to act as a delivery service, I think getting us to do that would probably cause more problems than it's worth. Probably for the best if we just stick to bribing the police. Hey, if Atia's interested, we can still rent out the room, though. It's all pre-desecrated and everything!"

The visible disappointment on Marie's face didn't go unnoticed and Leah hid her annoyance. Killing fourteen kids just for kicks wasn't her style and the lawyer should know better than that. "It's more than just a delivery service Marie, and I don't think just bribing the police is going to cut it this time. I mean it's fourteen kids for crying out loud! From a private school! The city will go apeshit."

She removed a folder from her briefcase and handed it to the lawyer. "I was thinking of trying to pin the blame on one of the history teachers. There's supposed to be a field trip for the freshmen to the local history museum next week."

Marie just casually shrugged in reply. "You'd be surprised," she responded, clearly in no danger of suffering from a moral conscience any time soon. "And bribery needn't be purely of the financial kind..."

Nor of the sexual, either. Leah would probably be surprised to learn of just who was already in Wolfram and Hart's pocket.

Flipping through the file, redhead perused brunette's information, all kinds of nastiness drifting through her mind, with all the impact of a grocery list. Smearing someone's reputation and making sure they got locked up somewhere the only 'conjugal visits' happen in the communal showers, was relatively simple.

"Sure," Marie finally agreed, looking up. "We'll even supply the wrong mangled corpses in some bizarre psychosexual rampage affair gone wrong. And make sure the DNA matches... Whether or not it actually does."

"Excellent, I do appreciate good work." Leah might have a few qualms about needlessly killing when not actually feeding off a victim, but she didn't have any about shifting blame for their kidnapping off on someone else.

"What's your fee, then, since it's obviously not as juicy as me doing the deed myself? I'm sure Atia will know what's going on and will either use the place you offered or come up with one of her own.

"The afore-mentioned introduction."

Marie was quick to act on an opportunity. Something like this was an obvious chance to move up in her personal world. Whoever Atia was, Marie was sure she could get on with them. A lot more occult knowledge than Leah possessed would probably go a long way, after all.

Not that she would know it, but even Elfleda had thought Marie had some definite potential.

"Take care of that and the rest's all yours, Leah."

"I'll pass it along, but she obviously will do as she pleases," Leah told the attorney. "I don't think she's as low key as Elfleda was, this woman's out to make a statement with a capital S."

"I wouldn't know," Marie spoke, placing a formal smile upon face, while she typed out a quick memo. All these things took time to set up. Time and resources, although of the type her employers would be glad to provide.

Once she clicked on 'Send', it was all done. The icon might not have been of a big red button, but might as well have been, for all the cool satisfaction it apparently gave the lawyer.

"But 'can do' is the American dream, or so I'm told... Should make for quite the refreshing change," she finished, glancing back up. "I'm in the mood for dinner before heading home. Feel like joining me?

Axes and Demons

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 02:32:59 GMT

The past few months had been an exciting time for Leah Allen. She'd been busy working on turning a group of diverse high school kids into her first worshipers, and having a blast doing it.

It had been a little difficult at first, having to be careful during the school day and making sure the administration didn't get wind of the goings on in the athletics building after hours. About two weeks into the job she'd managed to get Grace and Ruben hired on the staff and they functioned as her security force, keeping prying eyes out from where they didn't belong. The athletics building was gradually becoming her own personal fief.

Leah rose from the king sized bed she'd had installed in what had been a storage room and now served as her inner sanctum deep inside the athletics building. The hybrid looked fondly down at the two exhausted teenagers who lay passed out on the bed, Ryan and Kevin had given her quite a workout and she'd fed liberally from each without draining either boy to the point where they couldn't recover.

She slipped into her silk kimono and padded on bare feet toward the locker rooms and showers within.

She had watched the act with the intensity of a voyeur. Every touch, every kiss, every thrust. The carnal pleasures had always held a special fascination for her, and she fondled the haft of her axe as she slipped soundlessly from the portal she'd opened. She hadn't realized the succubae had spread to the New World.

"Well played, little cannibal...."

Atia's voice echoed hollowly off of the walls of the bathroom, and she paused long enough to consider her surroundings before adding, "Rather a bland environment for your sort, as in my day you would have lived in a golden castle, but I suppose it will do in these dull times." The Bride toyed with a few of her red curls, the axe's blade glinting dully under the fluorescent lights.

"I always had a fondness for the succubi. Far distant cousins of vampires that they are, they're so...earthy. And the young have the best flavor. Whether its their flesh or their life force you wish to eat. I do congratulate you, little cannibal."

"It's a start," Leah said with a touch of defensiveness, caught in the act of hanging her kimono on the peg outside the showers.

She didn't know what the pretty redhead was, but considering she'd come out of nowhere and eluded Leah's vampire security she must be a being of considerable power. It wasn't in her interest to go around pissing off such beings if she could avoid it.

"I'm glad you're fond of us, and thanks for the congratulations. You are?"

"Oh, I've answered to more than one name in days gone by," Atia said airily, and behind her the portal closed like a wound in reality. "But as I am a newcomer to this plane, I shall dispense with formalities. You may call me Atia. Bride of Leviathan."

She smiled, but there was only a brittle humor to it. Doubtless the girl had never heard of her, but that was of little consequence. By the time she was done, every supernatural denizen of Las Vegas would tremble at the sound of her name. They had no idea.

"You find the word 'cannibal' distasteful," she said, and it wasn't a question. "The young always have a habit of dressing things up to be prettier than they are. It's something you'll grow out of in time. Provided some outraged parent doesn't cut your throat in your sleep, that is."

Her tone remained light, and she trailed one hand along the wall. "I do commend your boldness, however. Is the taste worth the risk?"

"I thought that Elfleda was the Bride of Leviathan?" Leah asked, surprised by the claim. The newcomer didn't have Elfleda's sense of style at all, instead she was direct to the point of bluntness. It was a refreshing change, really.

The hybrid sat down on a nearby bench and eyed Atia with curiosity. "I don't expect to have any angry parents coming after me, and even if some of them did decide to try anything, my security is excellent and I've never used my real name here anyway. What I want to know is the reason you're here."

A creature as powerful as Atia seemed to be wouldn't just look in on Leah for the hell of it, she wanted something.

"Mmm. Clever little beast, aren't you?" The redhead's voice contained the barest hint of approval, and she touched her index finger to the point of her chin. "I rather suppose that I wanted to make an announcement. You have the remnants of Elfleda's touch on you. Its like a fingerprint, very distinctive. Tell me, is she the one who has set you on this path?"

The axe was removed from her belt, and she began to twirl it from hand to hand with the practiced ease of someone who had ages to perfect the skill. She had ridden at the head of her own demon battalion in her first days as a Bride, slaughtering her way across the cosmos and leaving nothing but smoldering rubble and dead worlds in her wake. This? Was simply something she did when she was bored.

She smiled that child-like, glitteringly insane smile at the half-succubus, still toying with her axe. "I watch and I wait. To see who is worthy. If I should decide that you are not..."

Mid-twirl, the redhead halted the hypnotic motion of the weapon, closing her fingers around the handle, then cast it at the wall in a sharply defined arc. The blade embedded itself in the concrete six inches from Leah's head, the metal that was still exposed humming from the impact. And Atia was no longer smiling.

"Then you will not have to wait for some son's mother to slit your gullet. Am I understood?"

Leah's skin had paled underneath her tanned complexion as the blood drained from her face and she stared at the axe next to her head. The hybrid gulped and turned her attention back to Atia, her attention completely focused on Elfleda's apparent replacement.

"I've had...exposure...to Elfleda before, but this was my idea and I've done it on my own." Notwithstanding the hiring of vampiric security and taking on Bickerstaff when the demon approached her.

She eyed the Bride warily, "What do I have to do to make sure I'm considered worthy?" The last thing Leah wanted to do was get involved in someone else's plans. The last time she'd done that, Vicky had paid the price.

Appearing mollified, if only for the moment, Atia rolled her eyes upwards towards the ceiling. She had not precisely intended for this to be a business call, but why not take advantage now that she had put the proper fear into the girl? Get those wheels greased and rolling...

"I should imagine that you have quite enough strong young bodies to feed your appetite," she said musingly. "Enough that you can spare a few?" The questions were questions in named only, but the Bride felt a filthy sense of accomplishment already. To corrupt, to twist, to soil, this was her purpose.

"Leviathan demands a ritual," the redhead intoned. "Blood sacrifice. As in the time of the Minotaur, seven males and seven females as tribute. I trust that the blood of strangers that would concern you."

Fourteen at once? The hybrid winced at the thought. It would cause people to ask questions, but Leah thought she could handle it. A little creativity could arrange things so that nobody would be the wiser to her involvement. A field trip gone horribly wrong...she did have the history teacher under her thumb, he'd be a good patsy.

Besides, she didn't really have a choice.

"As long as I can choose the sacrificial victims in question, I have no objection," she finally told Atia.

"I wouldn't dream of saying otherwise." Atia's smile had returned, but it was a smile like a nuclear winter. So easy. It was so easy to get the lower creatures to turn on one another. She really did hope there were more challenges in store for her here, otherwise she might get bored.

"I believe there might be hope for you yet," the Bride allowed, and she held her left hand out. The axe shuddered in the cleft it had made in the wall, then withdrew amid a small sprinkling of concrete dust. Mustn't leave without her toy, after all.

Shop Talk

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 21:31:55 GMT

"I... I can't help it! It's... It's that smell... It's driving me crazy..."

For months Victoria had tried to avoid it, the vampiress trying to avoid breathing whenever around the buxom young hybrid. Here, though, having finally tracked Leah down to confront her about what had come to pass with Fang Noir, with Mallory's friend, the elder brunette could feel herself slipping. Had since the moment she stepped through the door.

Leah's pheremonal abilities had been getting more and more use since starting to take over the school. Here and now, in her unliving friend's midst, things had steadily gone from distracted conversation to something far more visceral.

And pushing her against the wall with a deadly resolve, human strength was no match against vampiric eagerness.

"You..." Victoria asserted, fangs and regal crest raising as she kissed hungrily up the former dancer's luscious neck. "You're driving me crazy..."

"No!" Leah pounded futilely against the vampiress to try and escape, then felt the fangs pierce her skin and begin draining the blood out of her. What had started as simple conversation had turned into a life or death situation

She could feel herself weakening with every heartbeat, as more and more of her blood was siphoned off by Victoria.

"No, please, don't do this," Leah protested weakly as the vampiress continued to feed...

"CUT!" The director for the scene tossed down the script in disgust. "This isn't working, we've tried six times now and it just doesn't work. Vicki, Leia, go get cleaned up. I'll talk to the writers about this and come up with something else." He shook his head. "Whoever wrote this must have been smoking crack."

With the lights going up, bathing the set in warmer glow than before, Vicki's next course of action was to remove the fangs from her mouth. Expensive things, professionally fitted. They probably cost thousands. If the show ever ended, the actress planned to take them with her. They would hardly be of any use to anyone else, after all.

"Y'know, I get the 'vampire and succubus-girl' thing. I mean, it's hot and all," she mused, walking, "but like to think my character would have enough sense not to breathe around yours, if it affects her so much. Sometimes I have to wonder if the writers just ignore stuff like that on purpose!"

"I know what you mean," Leia nodded sagely as they walked off the set and toward the doors of the sound stage. "I think the writers deliberately ignored that just to have our characters make out or something. As if we don't have enough girl on girl action on this show!" She rolled her eyes at the idea. There were at least three lesbian characters on the show that she could recall off the top of her head, and several more that were bi.

"Have they told you what Victoria is going to do now that Fang Noir is gone?" She hated to see the location go, it had been a fun set to work on.

"Well, it wouldn't be... Like, too bad," Vicki muttered, although mostly to herself. The vampiress got in plenty of sexual situations and it did nothing for her own frequent bouts of frustration. She had to be careufl to mask the hint of arousal such scenes gave her and the one they had just performed, up against the wall, was no exception.

She would definitely be taking a cold shower soon.

Leia's question, however, caused a knowing smile and Vicki looked at her out the corner of one eye. "There're, um..." Vicki paused, wondering if she should continue. "They're thinking of a spin-off. Nothing concrete yet!" She reassured, holding hands up. "Just, uh... You know, one of those things they wanted to keep options open for. I mean, God knows I'd like Victoria to break out a little. She acts like she's in command, but she's kinda' enslaved... To her heart, that is. Mallory, Deanna, whatever... She needs to be more independent, I think. Or learn how to, anyway."

An acknowledging tilt of head was made at the memories of Fang Noir's partial demolition.

"Plus," she added, "I think they just wanted an excuse to blow shit up...!"

Far enough away from where they had just been filming, Vicki stretched arms above head, rolling neck. It helped her to wake up a little; formerly trapped blood cells bringing a sudden rush of oxygen to muscles.

"What about you? If they offered Leah a guest shot on some new adventures, think you'd follow suit or stay in Vegas?"

"Blowing shit up is fun," Leia grinned, having something of a pyromaniac streak in her. July 4th was her favorite holiday and she'd been known to go out skeet shooting on a whim. When she was a scandalously wealthy movie star she intended to have a shooting range on her estate.

"I don't think I want to play Leah in a solo show, guest spots would be fine but I don't want to be typecast as a sexpot forever. Kind of hard to grow your career if they'll only consider you for one kind of role."

"Yeah," Vicki agreed. "Why else do you think I went for the fifties romance thing I did?" She said it with a grin. The project had yet to complete the post-production stage, but some pictures were starting to be leaked to various trade magazines. If nothing else, the cinematography looked quite fantastic. "Seemed like that Pearl Harbor storyline we had worked out pretty well!"

Ah, nothing quite like putting your character into an unusual situation to get your acting skills noticed...

"Tell me, though, Leia... The nymphomaniac thing. If you were writing it, what would you have your character do, if not that?"

"The Pearl Harbor storyline was a lot of fun, wasn't it?" Leia agreed with a smile. "It did seem to get us noticed in more ways than one, and spending two months on location didn't hurt!" She'd loved Hawaii, it had been incredible to live there as long as they had and she planned on going back one day.

At Vicki's question Leah paused, thinking about how to reply. Usually she didn't try to second guess the writers unless it was something severely out of character. "Leah is who she is, and I'm not looking to change that, but I think the writers need to tread a fine line with her to avoid making her a one note character instead of something dynamic. The storyline where she's trying to become a goddess is interesting, but I'm worried that they're focusing too much on the sex."

"My contract is up in two more years, I don't think I'll look to renew it. I'm doing a movie during the haitus and I want to keep my options open for other roles."

"What about you? If you would change something about Victoria what would it be?"

Vicki seemed crestfallen. "Aw, don't do that!" She protested. "This thing's, like, a cult hit! At least one more season and you'll be raking in the residuals for years! Plus, Leah's one of the few confidants Victoria's really got!"

A hand had made its way to one of Leia's shoulders, as Vicki said the words. Their characters had been through quite a time of it together and she would be fairly sad to see them part ways for good. Especially with the inevitable renewal of friendship apparently planned for the near-future.

Fair enough, so the on-screen friendship was partially a selfish motivation for wanting her to stay, but Vicki still meant it. Things just would not seem the same.

With a concerned tucking of hair behind ear, Vicki looked at her, feeling a little disheartened. "Her own little adventure again," she thoughtfully decided. "But on her own terms, this time. She's meant to be writing that book thing about her experiences... It'd be neat to see her going on some field research, so to speak. I'm worried it was destroyed in the Fang Noir thing, because it's never mentioned now. Something like that or her finally turning someone... I think she needs a student."

"Just as long as it isn't Leah!" Leia protested with a laugh, reaching up to pat the hand on her shoulder. She considered Vicki a friend, and they'd spent a lot of time together because of their characters. "It might be fun to see Victoria with a student, a newbie vamp all her own. Make Deanna a proud grandmama, I'm sure Diana would love that." Her eyes rolled and a smirk appeared on her lips.

"As for the contract..we'll see. Part of it will depend on if the movie does well enough to get more scripts sent my way. If so, I'll stay if I can have more time to pursue stuff other than Birthright on the side while still putting in screen time as Leah."

She turned and looked Vicki in the eye. "Even if I leave, that doesn't mean we wouldn't be friends anymore. You know that, right?"

"Hey, if they give my character anything, I'd rather have it done right, if at all," Vicki pointed out of her own character. "Remember how the Jill thing ended? A big ole' anti-climax - no pun intended!"

As Leia returned to the matter of contracts, Vicki nodded, patiently smiling. "Yeah, I do," she answered, although could not help but momentarily dwell on how their schedules might conflict, should the decision go ahead. "It'll just be a shame, that's all. And hey, if nothing else? We've still got karaoke!"

A bell rang on set and someone jogged over to the pair. "Viki? Leia?" The assistant called. "They'd like to talk with you two on an alternative idea. Something about a tub of ice cream..."

A Night in the Basement

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:25:27 GMT

Leah had been mildly concerned when she heard the news on TV of Fang Noir's transformation from Club to smoking ruin, and her call to Vicky's phone had ended in voicemail, which heightened her anxiety just a touch higher. She might not have been the best employee or friend in the past few weeks, but she still cared about the Vampiress.

If she didn't hear from Vicky or Deanna in the next day or so she'd start to worry, but for now she'd simply assume the two were busy dealing with the aftermath. She had her own issues to deal with.

With her current job masquerading as a high school teacher Leah had found herself working harder than she had in years. She was actually trying to teach her classes the value of physical exercise instead of just allowing the will of the mob to rule, and it was a difficult task.

Leah wanted followers, worshipers, but she didn't want worshipers that were slackers. The whole point was to mold the young minds of Las Vegas's potential movers and shakers to worship her without turning them into stoned out losers. It was tiring work, and after 'extra curricular activities' with some of the more promising students Leah was ready to relax and indulge in a drink or three.

She'd heard good things about 'The Basement' from some of the patrons of Fang Noir and had decided to check the place out. As she walked into the bar she could tell why the place held such appeal for the supernatural set, at first glance she could see vampires in full form, a fair number of humans, and several demons, all seeming to get along without issues.

There was one creature in particular that caught Leah's attention, resting on the coils of her tail...

It must have been like stepping into something out of a 'Star Wars' film. The weird and wonderful mixed with both the mild and exotic. Beings from extremes of apparently both light and dark were gathered there, as well as relatively mundane creatures of neutrality. The only guarantee was of violence being disallowed.

Which made it perfect for one of the Lamiae to frequent, mingling with others, setting up deals or simply indulging in light entertainment.

Erato seemed most in her element when in such surroundings. She could play at being both mysterious and the life of any nearby party, with enough influence to make good on just about any promise she chose to.

Smiling in conversational laughter, the brunette tipped head back, all good humour and grace. Her eyes, however, alighted upon the newest visitor, feeling Leah's gaze having settled upon her.

Erato had no need to retain the guise of a bipedal human being here and slid upon unfurling, serpentine coils, over to her friend's position. "Leah...!" The girl's elder friend warmly greeted, kissing both cheeks, before linking one arm into her own and ushering Leah over to her table, at a slow, wandering pace.

"Darling, it's been a while. You seem... Different."

"So do you," Leah observed with amusement at the reaction of her friend. Erato seemed...relaxed, happy even. She wondered if it was because she wasn't trying to hide what she was or if there were another reason for the good humor.

"I guess I am a little different these days," she acknowledged as the lamia led her to the table. Leah took a seat and flagged down a waitress...at least she thought it was female with the way it dressed, and ordered a drink before returning her attention to her friend.

"I ate something that agreed with me." It was a simplistic explanation, but it worked as well as any. "I've been different ever since."

"Different," Erato echoed. "Yes."

The cryptic reply needed little more. Erato had somehow detected something, that was for sure, but also to be expected. Leah was, indeed, different in many ways and some of them metaphysical.

All of them, however, apparently to the girl's benefit. She was both acting and dressing in a more mature fashion. Young Leah was growing up. Returning to her own seatless space, Erato eyed her with a form of admiration, like a teacher who had been given clues of a student's doing well. Her tail was now coiled, basket-like, beneath her. The tip swaying leisurely, this way and that.

"Tell me, Leah... What is this new treasure you have found? You can tell Erato...!" The serpentine woman teased, her smile revealing a hint of fangs.

Leah laughed and held up her hands in surrender. "All right, all right. I'll tell."

The young woman paused, trying to determine how to put into words what had happened. "I'm not sure I can explain it right, Erato. I ran into this girl, a hybrid of some kind like me I guess. The energy levels in her were out of sight and I couldn't help myself, even though I don't normally go for girls. Anyway, I start draining her and its like I'm on the other end of a fire hose and I can't turn it off, there was so much energy gushing out of her..."

Leah still didn't feel like she was explaining it correctly but it was hard to put into words the differences in her since that night.

"Ah," Erato acknowledged with a smiling nod, "your furnace was stoked..."

An eyebrow raised with false innocence at the intentional double entendre and Erato raised her own glass to lips, partaking of the elixir's taste. She understood enough of the conveyed meaning to discern the basics of what must have taken place. The girl had been... Supercharged.

"It gave you vision, I think," the Lamia spoke. "Focus, yes? I see you now have a very satisfied appetite, Leah... You must be farming a harvest of your own."

"How'd you know?" Leah looked at her friend quizzically.

Her drink arrived and the hybrid took a deep sip, savoring the taste before returning her attention to her scaled friend. "It did help me focus, yeah. One of the last people I drained right after that was a girl about my age who was starting a job as a teacher at this private high school here in town, and it gave me an idea."

She took a deep breath and launched into describing her plan. "There was this book on Succubi that I bought down in that magic shop in Searchlight, it talked about a Succubus that was worshiped as a goddess by this cult in Europe for centuries and it gave me an idea. I want to try and do the same kind of thing here in Las Vegas and the girl gave me the perfect opportunity. I figured why not recruit high school kids, get them while they're young you know?"

"It seems to be working so far, but I've only just gotten started." The girl paused and took another sip of her drink, wondering if such an ancient being like Erato would find her plans silly or immature. She wasn't even twenty one yet, not for another month.

"Observation, my dear Leah," Erato answered to the first and continued to drain the contents of her glass yet further.

It was a curious liquid. No sooner did she set it down upon the table, than the substance spontaneously seemed to refill by itself. Most were amazed by the variety of customers at such a place. Few bothered to notice the smaller things; the magical concoctions or enchanted furniture.

Erato's focus, however, was now increasingly upon the tale Leah wove. Young bodies, young minds... It seemed a veritable emporium of deflowerment was in progress and the elder of the two brunettes' smiles grew wider.

"Well..."

It was spoken proudly and Erato's gaze seemed almost to glint with something of an inner sparkle to them. It was kept upon Leah, but the snake-like woman clicked fingers loudly, beckoning a waitress over for Leah's benefit.

"You have done well for yourself," Erato purred. "But beware you do not step too far. The fall may be great. Not to mention painful."

Leah accepted another drink and preened under Erato's praise. The elder brunette's opinion was important to her, and she looked up to the lamia as something akin to an older sister.

The young woman finished off her first drink and started on her second, pondering what the warning meant. How could she step too far? Leah was trying to start small and work her way up slowly, though the additional help of the two vampires and Bickerstaff meant she could spend more time working on her converts and less worrying about security and what the administration might know.

"I think I've got it covered, but if you've got any advice I'm all ears." She took another sip and gave her friend her full attention.

Something was taken from the center of the table. A long, cigarette-like object, attached to a piped tube leading straight into where it had been laying. Erato breathed in the vapor it would exude, treating the oddly-scented fumes as a form of delicacy in odor form. Exhaling it, a cloud took on the shape of serpent in the air, although only for a moment, before whisping away entirely.

"Know your limitations... Push them, but not too far," she offered in suggestion. "Humans would term this 'common sense'. I call it 'wisdom'. How else do the strong survive?"

For wisdom came in many forms and a prized virtue was in knowing how to apply it. Something she did often.

"I think you have great potential, Leah... Your lessons shall be learnt through either hardship or play. We both know at which you would prefer to excel, hmm...?"

Leah idly watched the lamia blow smoke serpents as she pondered the advice. How would she know when she'd pushed them to the limit? The hybrid decided she'd have to watch closely, and maybe ask some of her associates for their opinions on the matter. The vampires would definitely have more knowledge about peoples limits than she would, simply due to the fact that they'd been alive much longer than herself.

"I definitely like play more than hardship, I'll try my best to not go too far." She assured her friend, and decided to change the subject to something other than herself. "What about you Erato? It's been months since I've seen you, what's new?"

"The usual," the usual, replied her friend, with a leisurely flick of the wrist. "Observing, guarding, playing... Recreation." The last word was given added emphasis with a widening of eyes, Erato momentarily leaning forth. "I find the most tremendous parties..."

Another intake of scented fumes and Erato exhaled again, that time creating an animated horse and carriage, galloping into the ether.

"Am I to gain an invitation to yours, I wonder...?" The Lamia wondered aloud, head tilting a little to one side. Not necessarily a literal one, of course. She was referring to the girl's new-found activities. "I'm sure you have an excellent menu..."

"You'd want to come to my 'party'?" Leah was surprised and didn't bother hiding it. She thought for a minute and shrugged. "Sure, if you'll invite me to one of yours sometime. I'm sure the kids would love to see another new face. You always seem to know how to find me so I won't bother asking if you need directions."

"Which school? The name... Which school is this?"

Erato's question was lightning-quick. Her method of location was mysterious, but as the recent debacle had shown, when the girl disappeared through time, she did not always know where to look. Perhaps how she did it would be revealed, some future day.

With the place in question being spoken of, Erato smiled politely, thanking her friend for both answer and permission to visit. It would at least be entertaining, if nothing else.

"And precisely what type of party would you like, Leah? I know a great many... Types."

"No eating little kids," Leah told her friend firmly. "I may not be a goody two shoes but even I have limits. Aside from that, surprise me." She had no idea what sort of parties the lamia might attend, but given the fact that the elder brunette had similar tastes to her own Leah imagined she'd enjoy them quite a bit.

The hybrid found herself looking forward to her friend paying a visit to the school. It would be good to see what Erato thought of her progress and maybe she'd get some more advice. "I hope you'll be able to pay a visit soon."

Erato said nothing in reply to the comment about children, although seemed the type to respect an associate's requested boundaries. Even then, it might be wise to keep an eye on her activities.

Erato certainly had an appetite to take care of.

She did nothing for a moment, just staring at the girl. Measuring her, although not exclusively with eyes. Then, exhaling fumes quicker than before, Erato seemed to get the impulse for doing something, bringing herself up with a straightening of coils.

"Tell me, darling," she began, gesturing Leah away from the table. "Have you ever spoken to a dragon...?"

First Day of School

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:00:27 GMT

Leah had spent the previous two days going through all the final paperwork and being familiarized with the school. It was quite a place, and brand new too, she could still faintly make out the smell of fresh paint on the walls and everything had that fresh sparkling look.

For a creature used to working past midnight on an average day, today she'd gotten up insanely early in order to make it to the school at the required time, before the students got there at 7:30. Instead of being tired though, the hybrid was practically bouncing with anticipation, today was the first step in her bid for power.

She was dressed in the required uniform of khakis and a knit shirt. With her figure it hardly mattered what she wore, but Leah still would have preferred something with a little more style. It would have to do for now, but maybe later once she had the athletic facilities under her thumb she'd create her own dress code.

The bell rang and she started to hear students entering the gym proper. She let them stew, waiting for them all to arrive and gab amongst themselves about who the phys-ed instructor would be this year. Back in Leah's high school days the gym teachers had always been ex jocks who'd let themselves go to fat from too much beer or women who were built like tanks and moved as quickly.

These students would find themselves in a completely new world.

Mornings and students were not concepts usually associated with one another. Like magnets of the same polarity, one had a way of canceling the other out. Still, there were mixed genders and enough hormones around to get both sexes interested in catching a look at what some of the more attractive among them looked like in skimpier clothing.

The random gossiping, needless to say, quickly began to quieten upon sighting a very different sight. Teenage eyes, both male and female, instantly drawn towards the older woman now walking out into their midst.

The guys, because even without Leah's scent in the air, the older woman's face and figure was enough to make most typical males instantly get a masturbatory fantasy. Some of the more confident and mouthy even piped up muttered things along the lines of an, "I'd hit that..."

The girls, because here was an obviously beautiful young woman. Some of them were probably looking on in contemplation of this one being obvious competition, both for attention and boys in general. A few others were even impressed, thinking that possibly this would mean their new teacher would actually understand the true virtues of keeping fit. Namely, how to be pretty and keep trim.

Either way, Leah had yet to say or do a thing, much less give an introduction, yet she had succeeded in gaining her class's full attention.

Leah smirked as she surveyed the class. This period was devoted to 11th graders, so they obviously had some growing to do yet, however most of them looked fit enough for teenagers. Some of them even appeared to have kept up an exercise regimen over the summer. Most of those were in athletics, and those that were members of the track and field team would be seeing her after school tomorrow for practice.

Given that she ran or swam daily to keep in shape, she had no doubt that she could run most of them into the ground and still have energy leftover. There was only a five year difference between herself and her class, young enough for some of the boys to think they might have a shot at her. If they were lucky.

"Good morning class, my name is Miss Anderson and I'm your mistress after god for fifty minutes every day. Let's see what you can do, hmmm? Get in formation and assume push up positions."

As the students scrambled to get into position Leah made a point of walking up and down the ranks, judging who looked to be in the best shape. She'd already identified a few kids that would end up being vamp food if things progressed they way she expected them to.

Young bodies belonging to, in some cases, even younger minds. All did as they were told. Even the cockier ones were interested in shining her on, for obvious reasons. Not that it stopped them from trying to verbally press their luck.

"Hey, Miss, we heard you be teachin' some CPR later..."

"Yeah, we totally did. First aid, we should totally do that."

"Miss, I'm a little rusty on this. Think maybe you could give us a demonstration?"

Lewd comments were to be expected. Teachers, if they were nearly so young and attractive as Leah, had to learn how to impress authority upon their students. She, however, was neither a real teacher or apparently interested in making them focus on their work. Not the boys, anyway.

Most of whom were not necessarily looking at her face, in any case...

Leah ignored the banter as she called out the cadence for push-ups. "one-two-three-one! one-two-three-two!" Truth be told she really didn't give a rats ass about what they did, but she did want her authority respected. It would be necessary later on.

She continued calling out the cadence as she walked up to one of the more mouthy ones, a boy who looked to be on the football team judging by his build. She put a foot between his shoulder blades and pushed, making it all the harder for him to bring his torso up from the 'resting' position.

"You're a firecracker aren't you? What's your name?"

There was a grunt as she pushed him down. Defiant, though, the lad looked up, craning his neck to try and get a look up the woman's crotch or just about any other part of her anatomy which presented itself.

"John, Ma'am," the youth retorted and possessed just enough strength in his frame to push himself up. It was difficult, but then Leah had deliberately shosen a physically capable one.

Unbeknownst to Leah, she had at least one friend who was well-versed in the treatment of slaves. From what Erato had said, she was old enough to have quite some experience in older civilizations. The sort built upon the exploitation of others. Quite whether Erato, herself, had actually presided over any such things, who could say? All lthe same, she would have been a welcome observer to this situation.

Leah adjusted her stance and sent the teenager sprawling. "All right John, since you seem to have so much energy you can get off your ass and on your feet. Start running laps around the gym until you drop, I tell you to stop, or you have to go to your next class. I expect to see you back here after school for detention." He was a handsome specimen, she'd enjoy giving him a workout.

She might even wear her amulet.

The hybrid stared at the youngster until he stood up and started running, then turned to find the rest of the class had slacked off. "What are you looking at? On your feet, jumping jacks!"

By putting the proverbial Alpha down, Leah had achieved the desired effect and even though her somewhat Amazonian demeanor had managed to fire a few imaginations, she had more or less stamped her seal on the rest of the lesson.

A few of the young guys were looking a little uncomfortable. Mostly because of the erections in their underwear. The things were notorious for wanting to say hello to the world, at the most embarrassing times.

Such as in the presence of a sexy young woman.

With a few taking the necessary extra time 'getting comfortable', the girls had risen before the boys. All, though, were up to their feet and ready for more, before too long.

Leah slowly walked in between the rows, mentally cataloging the specimens she wanted to spend extra attention on, and those she would leave out of her plans. The names on the class roster would have to be checked online to see if anyone needed to be included simply because of their parents, but everyone at this school would have wealth in their family.

She eyed a pudgy looking short girl with glasses trying in vain to actually put the 'jump' into the 'jumping jacks.' Unless the kid's dad was a congressman or billionaire she was a definite candidate for being handed off to Grace and Ruben later on when she needed to throw them something to eat.

"You, what's your name?"

"Regina," answered the youth, getting to their feet.

This must be what those in charge of slaughterhouses must feel like. At least, those without compassion. Each one represented a mewl, a method of bribery to gain the services of different types of vampires or simply the first of the worshippers Leah would allow to live.

"Maybe you should put little tags on 'em... Like them other types o' cattle..."

The voice was rough, dirty and, for some reason, with an accent not too unlike a typical working-class Cockney. Not exact, of course, but if one had to give a verbal likeness to it, then that would be it.

And once Leah turned in its direction, it was clear why.

What hovered next to her was clearly incorporeal. Light was able to pass through it, like a pane of translucent glass, but it clearly had a body.

A very inhuman body...

None of the students appeared to notice the bipedal, wasp-like creature standing there, mandibles twitching, perhaps even twisting into some obscene parody of what could pass for a smile, if such a thing could even exist upon the thing's visage.

"Oh, don't worry... They can't 'ear us...!" The thing reassured, filthily chuckling. "An' I ain't 'ere t'bring y'back to the Master, neither... Worked me guts out for that pile o' shit an' what did it get me, eh? Dead body, that's what!"

Did demons have ghosts? Were they not one and the same as their physical forms? Perhaps, if this one was anything to go by. If not, then perhaps it had simply survived the killing act by metaphysical means.

Visiting a more hellish world had given Leah a glimpse into her other self. One made to serve a horrifically animalistic owner, yet who seemed to do so willingly, at least in part. This thing was the servant who had assumed she was one and the same as her counterpart, charged with bringing the girl back. When those worlds had collided, this thing had come through, only to earn itself an apparent death in the process.

And now it was here... Chatting to her.

"No, no, love... I been watchin' you... You's got a kingdom o' yer' own to make, aintcha'? I could help, I could..."

Leah blinked at the sight of the ghostly visage, one that brought back some decidedly unpleasant memories.

"John, get your skinny little butt over here!" She called to the teenager she had running laps, and strode to the front of the formation of exercising students.

When the now sweaty boy came to a stop in front of her she handed him her whistle. "You're in charge for a few minutes, there's something I need to check on in my office. I don't want to hear any slacking off or you'll wish all I had you do was run, clear?"

She waited until the boy acknowledged her order and turned her back to go into her office.

Once there she partially closed the door enough so that she couldn't be seen but could still hear what was going on outside. The ghost of the insect demon had followed her in and she turned to stare at it.

"All right, what are you doing here and how can you help?"

"Unemployment, you might say, y'Ladyship..." Answered the would-be assistant, the ethereal creature seeming to make what passed for a bow of respect. Quite a different manner to the one expressed before. Still, as it had said, it was seeking 'employment'. "Taskmaster Bickerstaff, is I," the creature introduced, volunteering job description and identity. "An' I come to offer me services..."

There was no way the thing could be confused for anything in the known animal kingdom. Creatures like that were jsut not the product of natural evolution. More of something... Infused or created.

"Oh, many's the task I mastered, Miss... All for the old Lord... But, uh," it reasoned, clicking a mandible, "'Ee's not 'ere now, is 'ee? I figure, you's need someone who can keep track 'o things, as it were. Someone who can 'elp out as needed... Can't keep an eye on everything, can ya', now?"

Leah eyed it skeptically. At least the ghost/demon/whatever was showing the proper respect if it wanted to work for her.

It could be useful to have something like the demon around, though it would be better if the creature could regain its solid form somehow. If nothing else it would be a useful intelligence gathering device since it couldn't be seen by anything else at the moment, and it had a good store of information on how demonic kingdoms in the other dimension. Prehaps some of that could be adapted for her uses.

"What's in it for you, aside from a steady job? It isn't like you need a paycheck or something to eat."

"Ehh... No, not quite, Miss..."

Leah was right to be cautious. She had certainly grown in awareness, since only a year or so ago. She was maturing mentally, as well as physically.

Bickerstaff had his reasons. Or was that 'her'? Perhaps even 'it'. The voice at least sounded like it belonged to a male, in any case. Whatever the case of gender, the creature had its own motivations. Not necessarily to the detriment of Leah, but motivations, nonetheless.

"Old Bickerstaff needs, uh... A tad more 'solidity', as it were... An' I can gets it, if you lets me 'elp out," it clarified, making that same attempt at a smile as before.

As if to demonstrate, it struck out with a taloned arm, straight at the nearest desk. Nothing much happened, just as it had expected, but a slip of paper did waft over to one side, demonstrating the thing did have at least a partial grip on the corporeal world.

"An' oh, I can serves, Miss! I can serves! I can tells you o' things... Then maybe I can 'elp out in other ways, too... But I needs the chance, don't I? I can't do nothing 'til then... An' quite a Queen you could be, if I may say so?"

Leah nodded at the demon's words. She had nothing to fear from the creature, at least nothing yet. If all it wanted to do was serve, then she would be willing to take it up on its offer.

"Flattery will get you everywhere, Bickerstaff." The hybrid smiled at the creature, then her expression sobered. "If you want to enter my service, you can start with keeping an eye on the administration. I want to know what they do, especially if anyone gets suspicious. This," a gesture was made toward the gym and the students it contained, "will take time. I don't want any nasty surprises."

She stood back up from the seat she'd taken earlier. "I'll expect to speak with you before and after school daily, more often if something comes up in between that needs my attention."

The hybrid moved to the door and paused with her handle on the knob. "Exactly how long have you been watching me?"

"Oh, of course, y'Ladyship!" The grovelling Bickerstaff readily agreed. "I'll even take care o' the bodies for ya'..."

Which might well have been what Bickerstaff had been after, all along. Who knew by precisely what mechanism it aimed to gain solidity by again? Not that Leah would have a use for any corpses she left laying around. Bickerstaff knew 'her kind' were far more interested in the actual sex than the necessary disposal of any cadavers such activities produced.

"A little whiles," the creature elaborated, ectoplasmic saliva or perhaps poison seeming to drip from fangs to floor, upon where it completely disappeared. "Always did think you 'ad potential, Miss... If you was out on your own an' all... You's a goddess among ants, in this world. I soughts you out, I did... Figured you'd make a go of it, if you could."

"Very well," Leah nodded at the demon, satisfied by the answer. "I'll see you after school then, if there's nothing else. I don't want the inmates thinking they can run the asylum."

She strode out into the gym, leaving Bickerstaff to carry out her instructions. There was work to be done.

Generation Gap

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 01:33:40 GMT

The one downside to the whole masquerading as a teacher thing was the wardrobe, Leah decided as she browsed the racks of khaki slacks and golf shirts.

She didn't do business casual. There wasn't a single pair of slacks or golf shirts to be found in her wardrobe, they were so...plain. No style at all.

The hybrid sighed, and consoled herself at the thought of all the fun she'd have shaping young minds to worship her as a goddess. Not only that she'd have plenty of studly young men to feed off of, a harem of beef on the hoof. Between her increased control over her abilities and the necklace Erato had given her, Leah had no doubt that she'd be able to moderate her feeding so that her victims weren't drained completely.

She picked a pair of dockers off the rack and checked the size before tossing it in her cart with a look of utter disgust.

"Put the suit jacket on." "No." "C'mon." "No." "I wanna see how it looks, if it hangs right." "Said no." "I heard ya the first forty times, Ruben. Just...for me, all right?"

Lord almighty, it was like talking to a baby. You'd think he wasn't nearly a century old, not to mention that she was doing this so he'd fit in. Grace folded her arms stubbornly and gave her sire a look, watching him look at her just as mulishly. "Ain't nothin' wrong with my clothes, and when in the holy hell do you know somethin' about dressin' up?"

"I'm plannin' to introduce you to people later on, and I'd as soon you not wander around lookin' like you're still in your burial suit." Okay, so that was a little louder than it needed to be, but he was annoying her. The older vampire smirked, lounging against the wall. "I ain't had no burial suit," he said. "Told you that story already."

"Ruben, for the love of..." Grace's words broke off when he snagged her by the waistband of her pants and pulled her a little closer, and the dressing room seemed to shrink with the new proximity. "Be nice," he said mildly, and she looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Make me."

"I did, remember?" The flash of yellow in his eyes was both a come-on and a warning, and he released the fabric of her cargos. "Fine. I'll put on the damned jacket. But I ain't wearin' no tie. 'Cause they look stupid."

Leah couldn't help but overhearing the conversation between the bickering couple as she entered the dressing rooms. She smirked as the woman tried to get 'Ruben' to wear clothes he clearly didn't want to. Men were simple creatures, if you provided the right motivation.

The hybrid focused on her own clothes, and entered the cubicle next to the couple. The dress code from the paperwork she'd gathered in Laura's hotel room said she had to wear this crap, but never said she had to be bland about it. For that reason she'd chosen khakis just a size or two too small for her, to better show off her curves. It didn't matter what top she chose, nothing would hide her boobs.

She tossed the khakis in the corner and started stripping out of her skirt and top so she could change into the styless clothes required by the school.

One thing about clothes shopping as a vampire, the lack of a reflection was a pain in the ass. To Grace, Ruben looked fine, but he was still acting so surly about the whole thing that she decided to get a second opinion. "Hold that thought," she instructed, then poked her head out into the narrow corridor. There were seven other dressing rooms, but all of them seemed vacant except for one.

"Excuse me," the vampire said, rapping on the locked door. Working on that outside voice, her public manners. "I'm sorry to bother you, but we're havin' a little situation over here. If'n you're not too indecent, can I borrow you so I can get an opinion."

"I don't like this color." Grace rolled her eyes at the sound of the male voice from the dressing room. Great, she got him to try on one jacket and now he was Karl Lagerfeld. Hopefully another opinion would help speed things along or else they'd be here til daybreak.

Leah dropped the khakis and opened the door. She poked her head out the door and looked at the other woman, wearing only her bra and underwear. "It depends on what you consider too indecent." Before Grace could speak, Leah had already emerged from her own cubicle and poked her head in the next. Anything was better than dressing up in this crap.

The man next door was average height, and not bad looking either. What really got the hybrid's attention though, was the fact that 'Ruben' had no reflection in the mirrors in the room. It made her pause for just a moment, since she knew a vampire when she saw someone without a reflection, but she decided to barrel ahead anyway.

Show no fear.

"Hmmm...I think he's right, the color's all wrong for him." Leah decided after a moment's contemplation. "With his pale complexion he needs something a little darker than this, maybe a more rugged cut as well."

Well. That was just...special. Grace raised one eyebrow, then looked over the woman's shoulder to see Ruben doing the same thing. The two vampires regarded one another in that weird sort of simpatico they sometimes got, a measuring look of not only one another but also the potential prey. The younger of the pair drew in a breath through her nose, sniffing things out, while the older one altered his position in front of the blank mirror.

"I like black," he announced, his Okie twang sounding very loud in the ensuing silence. "Like Johnny Cash. I don't know who invented this 'earth tone' garbage, but they oughta be shot."

"Man, you are not Johnny Cash," Grace said, slouching against the wall, making sure to block any possible escape should the mortal decide to make a run for it. She could hear her heart, the steady thump of it, even standing right there, and it made her 'vaguely hungry. Beef right on the hoof...

"What do you think?" the older vampire said, his narrow shoulders moving a little under the aforementioned jacket. "Black? Maybe dark brown? Even navy blue would be better. What can ya recommend, Missus?"

"Who's Johnny Cash?" Leah asked, not really caring whether or not she got a response. She looked between the two vampires (the lack of reflection from the woman had confirmed what she already suspected) and tensed just a bit. It wouldn't take much of her pheromones to have the two vampires practically tearing each other's clothes off, but she didn't want to go there yet.

"Black, I think," she said finally. "Also a dark brown, both colors would work. Now, unless you're determined to make a snack of me I'm going to back to my cubicle and try on those stupid dockers." The hybrid decided that if she just acted like the two vampires were no big deal then she might get out of this without a mess.

Maybe she could even make some useful contacts for later down the road. Even a goddess needed enforcers from time to time.

"Who's Johnny...!" Ruben's mouth literally fell open, his jaw wagging ridiculously for a moment, and for a second he didn't know if he wanted to laugh or be insulted. Damn kids these days, didn't their parents teach them anything?

"Well, you ain't no fun," Grace said mildly, taking another sniff at the air. "And you smell funny. Like you either been rollin' in somethin' or you ain't all human." Might as well call a spade a spade, after all. If she could call them bloodsuckers, they ought to call her whatever she was.

"Is it your momma or your daddy who dallied with somebody they shouldn't have? 'Cause I can hear your heart from here."

"Daddy," Leah shrugged. "Not that I know who he was, or even what name my mom used. I'm half succubus. Like you two I guess, only I drain life energy instead of blood." If they were calling a spade a spade, she might as well be honest.

She looked Ruben over with an experienced eye at judging male flesh, then turned to Grace. "So why are you wanting to dress him up anyway? He looks like wood floor and sawdust kind of guy, jeans and muscle shirts."

"Because I gotta introduce him to a lady later on, and I'd rather he not look like a cadaver waitin' to be put into the ground," Grace answered with a sort of good-natured peevishness. But Ruben just smirked at his childe. Finally, a woman with some damn sense! Even if she didn't know who Johnny Cash was.

"Yeah, old man, whatever," the younger vampire said, waving a hand at the expression. Fuck, but he drove her insane, and not always in a good way. Even if he did make her female parts heat up.

"If you get at least one suit jacket, I'll buy you a second leather one. All right?" If there was anything more ridiculous in the entire universe than two vampires standing around arguing about clothes, neither Ruben nor Grace knew what it was. After a long silence, the older half of the pair nodded. "All right. But only for you." "Thank you."

"Thank you, Missus," Grace said to Leah, offering her a 'what can you do with men?' expression. "Sorry to have bothered ya. But I guess us different sorts got to stick together, huh?" Being a half demon probably meant she wasn't edible anyway, at least not in a way that wouldn't make them sick.

"Absolutely," Leah nodded in agreement, then decided to stick out her hand. "I'm Leah by the way, not 'Missus', I already know his name," she gestured over to Ruben with a jerk of her thumb, smiling, "You two were pretty loud, but I didn't catch yours."

Another considering look was given to Ruben. As a vampire, he really didn't have any life energy to drain but he was still a handsome specimen. "Get the kind of jacket that looks like one of those army field jackets, very sexy on a guy with your build."

You don't know from loud, Grace thought. But she returned the handshake with all the aplomb in the world. No reason not to be polite. "I'm Grace, nice to meetcha."

"Succubus, huh?" Ruben scratched his stomach through his shirt, squinting a little. "Interestin'. Don't think I ever saw one of them, and I been around for a while. Guess this must be a real popular place with you, huh?"

"Oh yeah," Leah told the vampire couple with a smug smirk. "I might try out Miami one of these days, but Sin City is so much fun. A never ending supply of tasty tourists and new arrivals who won't be missed." She loved this town. "Lots better than Buffalo, that's for sure."

The hybrid decided she needed a second opinion as well. "Grace, think you could return the favor? I'm going to be masquerading as a teacher soon and have to 'dress appropriately'." Leah rolled her eyes to show what she thought of that. "I grabbed a few things and was about to try them on, think you could give me an opinion on whether I look too bland or not?"

"A teacher?" Grace's eyebrows went up, then shrugged. "You prob'ly oughta try for a longer skirt," she suggested. "'Appropriate' means 'professional' if it's an office situation, so unless its some kind of Van Halen music video kind of thing, you're gonna have to cover up a little more to avoid suspicion." Lord, if this chick didn't even know who Van Halen was, she was going to laugh at her, she really was.

"What's a succubus doin' teachin' school?" Ruben had already taken off the jacket and set it aside with the things they'd already selected, and he eyed Leah with the half-amused expression of a man who just knew his leg was being pulled. "Can't say as I've ever heard of that either."

"Oh I'll definitely be seeing some naughty boys after school," Leah smirked at the Van Halen reference. At Grace and Ruben's disbelieving expressions she shrugged. "I didn't say I was going to be doing it forever...but you know what they say about getting 'em young and they'll be yours forever? That's the plan anyway." She tugged the khakis over her hips and closed the fly.

"I'd rather wear a skirt, but the position is phys-ed."

There was a silence following that, and Ruben broke it by saying, "Grace, come here for a sec." The younger vampire stepped around Leah to get to her male counterpart, and the two of them talked for a few minutes in voices too low to be overheard. Grace eventually turned back towards the succubus and said, "My lovin' man says it sounds like you've got some kind of scheme cooked up. I'm guessin' this is not exactly a social work project, am I right?"

"You could say that," Leah allowed with a smile as she slipped the golf shirt over her head. "I don't know how it's all going to play out, not yet, but I'm hoping it will lead to bigger and better things." The discussion had not gone unnoticed, though she didn't know what exactly what they were saying. She could guess, though.

The hybrid tucked the shirt into her slacks and twirled slowly. "You guys thinking of signing on or something?"

Ruben ducked his head and spoke directly into Grace's ear, keeping it at that almost sub-verbal mutter. "He says it'd be nice to have somethin' to occupy hisself with while he's in town. He never knows how long he'll be around 'fore he gets the urge to move again, but in the meantime he could do with some spendin' cash. Besides, sounds like you're gonna need assistance with whatever it is you've got up your sleeve."

"This gonna be all you can eat?" the older vampire asked, one arm slipping around his childe's solid shoulders. "I love kids anyhow. 'Specially the slow, fat ones."

Leah eyed Grace and Ruben critically, thinking the proposition over. She didn't have a problem with the concept of feeding the fat ones off to the vampires, Leah imagined they might even taste good to the bloodsuckers, the fat in the bloodstream and everything. There was one flaw in the argument though...

"You wouldn't be much help during the school day, unless you two are super vamps who don't go 'poof' at the touch of sunlight?"

"Sewer access," Grace said without a pause. "Figure they got ways in an out of the buildin's that don't involve being outside. Long as we're not havin' to dodge those UV rays, there's no problem."

"Tannin's bad for ya," the older vampire added with a slight smirk. "It's why skin cancer's such a big deal these days." He looked Leah over, his expression unreadable. "Reckon you oughta lay off of it a little bit. The pale look is really in for the kids these day. Or so's they keep insistin'."

Leah nodded absently at Ruben's words, thinking more about the offer and Grace's explanation of how they could be of use. She was silent for a few minutes, rubbing her chin as she weighed the possible pluses and minuses of having vampiric security guards. It could be very valuable later on, after she'd gotten herself inserted into the school and started working on her plans.

"All right, you've made a good suggestion. What's your price? Besides the fat kids and anyone who gets too nosy."

The two vampires went into a mini-huddle, Grace's forehead resting against Ruben's shoulder as they muttered back and forth. The succubus seemed ambitious enough, if a little shallow and possibly not overly bright, but a 'job' that came with both money and a free meal plan was nothing to sneeze at.

"Our price is reasonable," Grace said airily. "We can be in touch just as soon as you get settled into your sitch there. We might need some kind of blueprint for the buildings to know where the access points are, but that'll be it and we can take care of the rest. Sound like a deal?"

"Agreed." Leah said without missing a beat. She liked the idea of having vampiric muscle around, but would have to keep an eye on them. It wouldn't do to have them thinking they could take over later on. The hybrid dug pen and paper out of her purse and scribbled down her cell phone number. "You can get in touch with me this way. At the school I'll be using the name 'Luara Anderson', so remember that if you call during the school day."

"I'll be sure to recall that." Grace looked at the phone number before tucking the paper away into a pocket. Inclining her head in Leah's direction, she said, "Its been real nice talkin' with ya, but I think I gotta get this man outta here 'fore he sets the whole joint on fire. I've tortured him enough."

"Well, you can torture me in a different way when we get home, reckon," Ruben said, reluctantly gathering their purchases together. "Hopefully that'll involve...a lot less being dressed."

"Have fun you two." Leah smirked at the departing vampires, and returned her attention to the clothes. First thing she was going to do once things were rolling along was drop the dress code. Things were looking up.

Epiphany

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:23:57 GMT

(Note: takes place before Scent of a Woman and Stool Pigeons)

Laura Anderson had traveled halfway across the country for the opportunity to teach at Comanche High School. She'd wanted to be a teacher all her life, to educate young minds and help shape their futures.

The young woman had arrived a few days early with some of her friends from college, intending to have a vacation on the strip before actually starting her new job. It turned out to be a fatal error in judgment as Laura's corpse and those of her friends were sprawled about the hotel room, their unseeing eyes wide open with rapturous expressions on their faces.

A cloud of steam billowed out from the bathroom as Leah padded out from the shower, vigorously toweling her hair dry. Her eyes no longer glowed, but the massive amount of demonic energy still burned inside her along with the energy from dozens of other people she'd drained on a multi hour rampage through the Las Vegas strip. Laura and her friends had been the last, and she'd almost passed them by except that she'd overheard the new teacher talking about her school.

That had given the succubus an idea...

Leah sat down on the bed beside Laura's corpse as she finished toweling her hair. "I'll owe it all to you Laura," she told the corpse. "I'd been trying to figure out how to get started for months, and it was right in front of my face."

She wanted to be a goddess. To be worshiped as the essence of sexual desire like the ancients worshiped Inanna/Ishtar, Isis, and Aphrodite. The rest of history wasn't something Leah had paid much attention to, but lately she'd been reading about those ancient deities trying to understand what about them caused their rise and fall.

Had they been relatives of hers? Succubae who had built up cults of personality and caused mortals to worship them as goddesses? Had they been real creatures? What was the secret?

It was overhearing Laura's conversation with her friends that had given the hybrid her epiphany: why not start recruiting followers when they were younger, more easily shaped and led in the direction she wanted? A high school would be perfect, a captive population of teenagers full of raging hormones and sexual curiosity.

All she needed was a way in. Laura was the opportunity that had almost literally fallen into her lap and Leah seized it. The young woman had done all her interviews through the internet or over the phone, the school administration had never actually seen her in the flesh.

Laura Anderson would arrive at school on time, and High School would never be the same.