It had been a week of torture... A week that she'd been trapped at Dmitri's house, the only people she'd had contacts with were her parents. It was almost scary how gullible they were, Catherine had told them that she was from a local juvenile center and part of an 'intervention team'. They'd bought her story hook-line-and-sinker, letting them basically hole her away from everything for a week.

Every second was torture. She wanted Edmund... She wanted the way he held her, the way he made her feel as if they were the only people on earth... She felt so good with him that she couldn't stand to be away.

But... But she'd played her part, fooling her parents into thinking she was better...

Well that wasn't the case. It was her first night free and she knew what she had to do.

She'd called Edmund at home, but he hadn't answered...

So she decided to go the place where she'd met him for the first time. The place where he'd almost killed her.

Alison shuddered slightly as she made her way into the club. The doorkeeper said he'd seen Edmund come in, but didn't know where he'd be. But that was okay. He'd know she was here. He'd smell her, feel her or whatever. He'd find her and make everything okay again....

Edmund leaned against the bar, studying the moving, shifting mass of people that was the dance floor of the Sinister Puppet. It never ceased to amaze him how the disappearances and the rumors that swirled aorund the Puppet tened to to draw people in rather than away. The worse the Puppet's reputation got, the more humans flocked to it. He shook his head, took a sip of whiskey. God bless idiocy.

He glanced over as another vampire sat down beside him, actually smiled as he recognized Thaddeus. Thaddeus was almost as old as Edmund, but they weren't particularly similar beyond that. They were of about the same height, but where Edmund had the thick, brawny build of a Rottweiler on two legs, Thaddeus was a sleeker Greyhound. And where Edmund cultured the look of an unreformed prison convict in his dark clothes and motorcycle boots, Thaddeus dressed like a colorblind, but very well-tailored, banker. Tonight he was in a sharp black three-piece suit that would have been quite stodgy if not for the blindingly lime shirt and Day-Glo orange tie that seemed to lend a shine to his glossy, black skin.

Edmund waved the glass at the pounding mass of people. "All this, and you couldn't find a good snack for the night?"

Thaddeus only smiled. "You know me, Edmund. Humans bore me sometimes," he replied, tugging Edmund closer until he could smell the scotch on his breath. "I want something more substantial tonight... Though I wouldn't mind splitting one... or two." The dark vampire's fangs slid down as he grinned then drew thin trails of blood over Edmund's throat with the very tips.

"You look a little lost love..." Said a gruff, sensual voice behind her. Despite the noise already surrounding her it made her jump.

A tall lanky man with tawny hair and hungry eyes was looking down at her. "Uh... No. I know I'm at the Sinister Puppet." She tried to make her voice stay steady. "I just... Can't find a friend of mine." She said with a shrug. "But he'll turn up I'm sure."

"Oh really? Are you really waiting for someone or are you just afraid of what I can do to you?"

She blinked. "I'm really waiting for someone. Edmund's his name. He's usually here, but I guess he's in one of the private rooms at the moment." She turned, wanting to get away from him. He made her skin crawl. But she froze, his hand on her shoulder. "Oh come on sweetie, don't just run out like this. I promise I won't hurt ya the first time. Just a little taste is all." He crooned.

"Uh no thanks."

There was a break in the music, and she spun around, hearing his voice. "Edmund?" He was sitting close, intimately close, to a black man. It... it was strange to see him with another man, especially like that, but what was it that She'd heard from older vampires? One flavor after a while gets boring?

She tugged out of the man's grip, dashing over to him. But she didn't throw herself on him like she usually would, just standing next to him, almost touching him. It was enough to ward away the other vampire, and she couldn't help but sighing in relief, slouching against the bar.

But she waited quietly, her eyes flicking over to Edmund's back, waiting for him to acknowledge her.

Thaddeus sucked hard on the little beads of blood that had welled up on Edmund's neck before the little scratches closed. Grinning, he pulled back, then paused as the girl approached. "Company, Edmund," he said lazily, letting his eyes run over the girl. "Yours, I assume?"

Turning, Edmund smiled at Alison. "Yes, actually." Downing the rest of his scotch, the vampire studied her as well. "Well," he said, signalling to the bartender to bring him another scotch and a glass of wine for Thaddeus, "they let you go, I see." He frowned a little as he looked her over. "OK?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow at the girl. "Any ill effects?"

She grimaced at his frown. "Yeah... Just this morning..." She said softly. "I'm sorry... I didn't know he was following me.. And... And if I tried to escape they'd have only held me longer!" She tried to plead with him, making him understand how much she hadn't wanted to be there.

"I missed you so much! It hurt so much being away from you! I had to see you again!" Everything was just coming out on it's own now. "I tried calling you at home but you didn't answer, so I thought I'd try to find you here! I'm so happy I found you Edmund! I've missed you so much..."

She wanted to throw her arms around him, to feel his hard cold body again...

"But... I... I guess you're busy. Should I go home? Or do you want me to wait for you? I know I just kinda... Barged in. This other guy was trying to suck me or something." He grinned wryly. It did feel nice to be wanted though. That hardly ever happened in her world.

"It's alright, poppet," Edmund assurred her, as she grew more and more hysterical. If he wasn't mistaken, she appearied to be jonesing. "You're out now and there'll be no more o' that, yeah?" Her presence reminded him of why he was almost fond of having her around. She was rather amusing.

As she spoke of coming back later, a bit of inspiration struck him. "No, stay. Thaddeus... well, he'll bite," Edmund grinned as he looked over at the other vampire, who nodded and toasted the girl, "but I'll make sure he doesn't tear your throat all the way out." Thaddeus frowned at that, but shrugged a little. Cajolingly, he tugged her into his lap, "have a little fun with us, luv."

She shook her head, a child-like grin on her face. "Not if I can help it! I hated it there.. So boring and stuffy... I swear if I had to stay in there was was going to go crazy."

Alison looked at the other vampire again as Edmund introduced him to her. "I don't mind a few bites." She grinned and blushed. "Well, Edmund knows the rules, even if I hate them, they're for the best." She shrugged.

The girl grinned again, holding back a giggle as he pulled her up onto his lap. Her body tingled with the touch, and though she wanted to ask if they could get a room now, just... Disappear for a little while, she behaved herself.

"I always have fun with you Edmund. Otherwise I wouldn't have snuck out, nearly been snacked on by a stranger and risk imprisonment again." She ran a hand up his chest to rest on his shoulder. "You do realize how much I've missed you, riiiight?" She said with a grin.

Thaddeus raised both eyebrows at the byplay between Edmund and the girl. His fellow vampire wasn't much the doting type, unless he'd changed quite a bit very recently. And the girl didn't seem to be much Edmund's type either, plain-faced and giggly. He was a bit surprised she'd managed to survive any encounters with the vampire.

"I've got a regular room," Edmund told Alison, giving her the number. "Why don't you go, and we'll join you in a bit." He lifted the glass he was holding. "Just want to have a drink first." Waiting until she was gone, Edmund sighed and drank a little of the scotch. "She's a bit annoying and dim, but she'll do just about anything. Pops up, gets high, we fuck," he said, answering the other vampire's unspoken question. "As far as arrangements go, hell, why not? She's too funny to kill yet."

Setting his glass down, he stood, dragged Thaddeus up from the bar seat by his bright orange tie and into a crushing kiss that drew blood as their fangs nicked skin. "Join me. She'll suffice for a nibble."

"Oh, I know where to find it alright." She said with a smile. After all, she remembered the room that she'd first met him in... The one where she'd at first been terrified of him, simply because he hadn't understood what was wrong with her. But once he knew and she knew that he wasn't going to hurt her, well, the rest was history as they day

She slipped off his lap and kissed him lightly. "I wore something I thought you might like..." She grinned mischievously and turned off, making her way up to the room.

Once there she tossed her bag carelessly in a corner, and stripped down.

She'd planned in hopes for this, and once she'd taken her clothing off she was standing against the back wall casually in a black lace bra and matching panties, the boy-short type which looked good on her semi-straight frame. She hoped that he liked them, and well... hoped that he didn't destroy them either. But she knew where she could find replacements if he did like them and did destroy them.

It was Thaddeus who entered first, his expensive silk tie (whoever heard of a cheap orange silk tie?) a bit crumpled. Otherwise, he was impeccable, even elegant. The elegance was disconcertingly out of place in a place like the Sinister Puppet. But his dark eyes caught the light as they landed on Alison and gleamed red, like a rabid hound's might. That certainly wasn't out of place in the Puppet.

"Hammer ran into some... acquaintnances," he said casually, tipping his head towards the door. "And I think he's going to bring some, ah, refreshments." The dark-skinned vampire's voice matched his appearance, smooth and cultured, with a distinvtive bell-like quality. He moved closer to her. Where Edmund's body language was like a boxer's, agressive and almost confrontational, Thaddeus moved like a snake--deceptively slow, almost like he wasn't moving at all.

He traced a fingertip over the top of her lacy bra, lazily. "He tells me you have a... condition. Can't stop bleeding." When he smiled, his eyes flashed red again, and he trailed the back of his fingernail down her cheek. "That sounds interesting."

She was a bit disappointed as the other man walked in first, but oh well. Maybe it was one of his games, a test sort of to see how she would handle the situation.

"Oh... Well that's to bad." She said with a coy little smile as her eyes flicked over him. She'd definitely learned how to flirt better, more seductively with Nora and Edmund around. She'd always been awkward around guys before, but that was all but gone now. Pity none of the boys in school held any interest for her anymore.

"But then again... I guess it would be nice to get to know you a bit better..." He said moving closer to him as his hands teased around the edge of her bra.

She smiled and gave a slight sigh as he mentioned the hemophilia. "Yeah... It's unfortunate... But it can be fun too... So long as you're careful of course...." Her smile was teasing as she moved to sit back on the bed, leaning back slightly as she set her harms behind her.

"So... What do you want to do while we wait for him to get up here? I'm open to suggestions."

Had there been money involved, one would have almost thought her a prostitute, the way she seemed to act. But to her, that was what it seemed Edmund liked. Hard to get, but still sexy. Willing to tease, willing to play.

Thaddeus smiled again, a thin and hungry expression. Edmund really was losing his edge, he thought to himself, if this girl was still foolish enough to think she could play the flirt. As she leaned back onto the bed, he slowly eased himself down as well, straddling her.

"What if I don't want to be careful?" he asked softly, catching her wrists and pinning them above her head. His grip was brutal and his eyes glittered--dark brown, then red, then back again, almost hypnotically. He held her wrists with one hand, the other one trailing over her pale skin. His nails were short but slightly curved, then, like cat's claws, slid longer and longer until they looked like glass hooks.

Thaddeus ran the very tip of one down the center of her belly. He could disembowel her. He liked that. It was a slow, painful way to make them die. More, fucking a human who had their guts spilling out was an interesting, if messy, affair. "I could slice from here, to here," he tapped from one side of her soft belly to the other, "and let you bleed." Even as he said it, he drew a claw in a light line, just enough to part the skin, licked the drop of blood from the tip.

"Well that's okay for a little while too... Edmund isn't that careful after all..." She murmured as she looked into his dark eyes. She tried to tell him that all he'd have to do was fix her up and everything would be okay. Just no irreparable damage.

Alison gave a soft moan as he grabbed her wrist tight, pinning them above her head. She sucked in a breath of excitement as she felt his fingers against her skin. The danger, the thrill... She needed it just about as much as any drug. The muscles in her stomach quivered as if waiting for something more.

Her heart picked up though as she heard his threat. Would he? For a while that would be okay of course. As long as he closed up the wound. But did he mean just let her bleed out? "Edmund..." She whispered breathless. "won't like that too much..."

But even as she spoke the words she gave a soft gasp of pleasure laced with pain as she felt his claw slice her skin. She could smell the blood, the metallic scent close and warm, and the cut... it really didn't hurt. It stung a little, but it didn't feel as if it would seriously hurt her.

"I'm not afraid..." She whispered, a little smile on her lips. "I want this... You don't know how good it feels..." And to her it always had. She didn't know why, but the idea that she was keeping someone else alive, and... "Bite me..." She whispered. "I'm not afraid... Take anything ou want." She offered, tilting her head back, letting him have access to her throat.

"Edmund," Thaddeus said as he trailed the backs of his talon-like nails over her belly, "Doesn't scare me." He drew the claws through the thin line of blood, took his time licking it off. As she leaned her head back, offering her throat to him, that thin, horrible smile spread, almost a smirk.

His free hand curled around her offered neck, squeezed so that his claws sank into the delicate column of flesh. "Foolish, foolish girl, offering your throat so willingly to a Tarepha," he chastased as he lapped at the blood that bubbled around the invading claws. He tightened his grip just a little more, so that it would be hard to get more than a wheezy stream of air. "I could tear it open and the blood would coat the walls." Thaddeus squeezed until even that thin bit of air was cut off, his sharp nails sliding deeper, though not yet dangerously so, into flesh. "Do you think it flies faster when it can't clot?"

He pulled his hand away, watched the blood flow freely. Thaddeus clamped his mouth over one of the punctures, sucking hard as his hand smeared blood on her ribs, jammed a claw deep between the bones and twisted it. He wanted to feel her throat work in a scream as he drank from her.

She laughed slightly. "He should. But he's your friend. You wouldn't damage his possessions would you?" Her tone was slightly teasing, yet a hint of fear wriggled itself into them.

As it was his hand instead of his mouth that clamped onto her throat, she tried to fight. But he was too heavy, and his hand pinned her head down. She gasped for air, and found it hard to come by. The tang of blood smelled even closer, she felt warm trickles as his claws pierced her throat. "Stop! Don't!" She gasped, trying to sit, move or anything to get away.

His only response was to tighten his grip. NO! She screamed in her head. Where was Edmund! He wouldn't let this happen to her! He wouldn't let his friend kill her!

She didn't hear his question as she was starting to truly panic as Edmund didn't come in. He... He wouldn't let him do this! Why wasn't he here! If he knew that Thaddeus was like this... Why did he let him up here alone?

She gasped and wheezed, coughing slightly as he let go of her throat. The first breaths stung as air refilled her lungs and by the time she regained sense o her surroundings his teeth were at her throat, sucking at the puncture wounds. She began to relax as the familiar feeling lulled her, his hand running down her front.

But the calm only lasted a second as she felt a piercing pain in her chest, right below her bra between two ribs. She screamed, trying to fight but the latter only made things hurt more. She screamed again, Edmund's name, begging him to hear her.

She wasnt particularly attractive, but her helplessness excited him. As she screamed, her throat working beneath his lips, he felt himself harden quickly. He wrenched the claw a little more, twisting until the sharp hook caught onto bone. Bone would be nothing against the hard nail, would be broken as easily as styrofoam. Part of him wanted to break it, hear the dry snap as the rib cracked outward underneath his claw...

"Thaddeus!" Edmund's voice was raised, unusual for him, as he stood in the doorway and his dark blue eyes glinted coldly. He had expected the other vampire to act as such; it was his nature. Hell, it was Edmund's own nature. And the girl needed to learn that there were vampires out there who thought of her as less than meat.

The dark vampire reluctantly pulled his lips away from the blood at the girl's throat, his deep brown eyes incredulous as they landed on Hammer. "Protecting a human? What is the matter with you? Any other time, you'd help me pull her intestines out, inch by inch." He sneered. "Not going soft for the cows, are you?"

Quicker than the eye could track, Edmund's hand snapped out, and this time it was Thaddeus with claws at his throat. Hammer's were spike-like, thicker and less curved than Thaddeus' hooked talons. "Not soft," he said, his gravel voice low and calm, "but she's my cow, Thad. You won't be butchering her." After a moment where the two eyed each other like dogs about to be at each other's throats, Hammer let go. "Let's not spoil the evening with a fihgt, yeah?"

She screamed as she felt the claw turn in her chest, tearing at muscle, and going for bone. "No! Don't! Please!!" She screamed. Her eyes wide with fear, unable to close. "Edmund!! Oh God!" She cried out, unable to fight him off.

But then she heard his voice. Angry? Certainly louder than he was usually. "Edmund... Edmund..." She whimpered, trying to move to him. Her body felt so weak. She couldn't move... Blood was still flowing, still leaving her, making her weaker by the second.

Her mind hardly made out the words that she heard, and even then she wasn't able to make sense of it all.

Thaddeus was off of her, the weight pinning her body was finally gone. She turned then, trying to crawl towards him. "Edmund..." Alison whimpered. Her thin blood was trickling onto the sheets now, staining the light gray with a bright berry red. She tried to reach out to touch him, but her hand fell as she was unable to hold herself up any longer.

Alison was panting, trying to keep her eyes open, but it was so hard... So hard to keep her eyes on him.

Casually, almost bored it seemed like, Hammer clenched a fist over the girl's wounds. His own claws dug into his palm and the thick, dark blood dribbled out, into the cuts. They seared fr a moment, then slowly, the skin began to knit. His cold blue eyes watched Thaddeus, as if daring the other vampire to speak on the contempt running through his eyes.

"Mine," he repeaeted, and his eyes glittered a little. When he grinned, his smile was full of fang. "I've got some uses for a stupid bitch like this," he said in an undertone, too softly for the girl to hear in her current state. It'd take her at least a few moments to revocer, what with the bloodloss and all.

Thaddeus' face was cool for a moment, then he nodded slowly. "Always the businessman, right, Edmund?" he asked, using the other vampire's true name, which was rare. The dark vampire even smiled a little. "That's not half bad thinking."

Hammer smeared the blood on the cuts on Alison's throat. "You want to take the first round?" he offered, licking at his own blood as the puntctures in his hand slowly closed.

Everything was fuzzy... She heard them talking... Heard them growling maybe?

She couldn't tell.

For all intents and purposes, Alison was out, unconscious and unresponsive. Her breathing had evened out and now that she was out of it, her heart had slowed as well, returning to a normal, if not slower pace. As the wounds at her chest and neck healed, the color began to slowly return to her face, even if she was paler than normal.

But where was he? She could feel him touching her, otherwise the wounds wouldn’t have stopped hurting. Well they still did, but not like they were still open. “Ed…mund…” She mumbled incoherently, her body still slightly crumpled on the bed. She wanted him to hold her… She wanted to sleep, knowing she was safe with him. She wanted to know he wouldn’t let the other hurt her anymore…

Why… Why had he let Thaddeus hurt her in the first place?

Angry now, or at least irritated, Thaddeus jerked at his sharp black jacket, tossed it carelessly onto the floor. Frustration made him want to break things, and since the girl didn't seem to be an option, he decided a nice little battle with Edmund would help resolve that. Besides, she was half out of it anyway and would be no fun. "I want an appetite before the girl," he said in an irate snap as he leapt at Hammer, his long, thin claws sinking murderously into the other vampire's chest.

Hammer grunted at the unexpected assault, his fangs flashing as they seemed to erupt from his gums. He was knocked back against the bed, his legs bumping Allison's, but he didn't fall. Instead, he felt his own claws extend once more as Thaddeus' talons impaled him. He'd forgotten how Thaddeus got when he was pissed. Not that he minded, necessarily...

The dark vampire shoved at Edmund, his claws tearing through more flesh and scsattereing blood. He was strong, as vampires are, and Edmund fell back onto the bed. "Fuck you first," Thaddeus said, eyes glittering red as he ripped Edmund's shirt away, "then the girl."

It was so hard to stay awake... It was so hard to keep her eyes open even the slits they were. Harder to see... Harder to focus...

"Edmund..." She murmured. "Edmund... please..." Trying to move closer to him she felt him laying down beside her. His arm. There it was. So close, so cold and hard, but it was him. She clutched at his arm the best she could, and being content that he was there she let the encroaching darkness take her. Edmund was there... She'd be okay now. Everything would be okay because he would protect her, he always did... He loved her. He had to or he wouldn't do anything that he'd done for her so far.


((Gonna FF, if you don't like it let me know and I'll change it.))


How much time had passed? She... She wasn't sure. Her whole body ached, her muscles were sore, abused and punished to their limits... She'd been slumped in a corner, how she got there she wasn't sure. But she felt like she had after the first night she'd had sex with Edmund. Her backside was sore too but vaguely she remembered screaming in a mixed voice of pleasure and pain.

"Ed... Mund?" Her throat was so dry it hurt to talk. Opening her eyes she saw him sitting on the chair, staring at her. Giving herself a bleary once over she saw a bruise on her backside, almost on her hip, in the shape of a hand. It was sore... Very painful.

Groaning she curled up on the opposite side and sighed.

"What- happened.... I... It's all a blur..." Her voice was still raspy, and she swallowed a few times trying to be able to talk above the harsh whisper.

Hammer didn't smoke much, but after a night like he'd had, he thought a cigar was in order. Inhaling the sharp black smoke, he watched the girl's chest rise and fall with the smooth regularity that was so human. She'd been half out of it the night before, but that had been fine. A couple of shots had gotten her going well enough.

He tapped the ash from the thick cigar as she began to stir, his navy eyes as cool as ever as she took stock. He wondered if her meeting with Thaddeus had drilled the lesson into her brain that vampires weren't the cuddly creatures that certain books and movies made them out to be or if her skull was too thick for even that to sink in. Nudging a glass of lukewarm water towards her, he blew out smoke as she spoke, voice hoarse from screaming like a banshee for hours.

"Well, Thad and I beat the hell out of each other for a little while until you came around," he said casually, "then we decidedthere were more intertaining things to do for the three of us. You don't remember?" That the two vampires had gone at it was at least obvious enough, most of the room was trashed. It being the Puppet, most of the furniture was made of steel, but even it was bent and dented in several places now.

She had to stop herself from trembling as he mentioned the other vampire. But... He wasn't here it seemed. That was a good thing.

Painfully she crawled over to him, curling up at his feet like a dog or cat might. "I... I don't... Well not details." She bit her lip as she hugged her knees to her, resting her head on his feet. She... She wanted him to hold her, to stroke her hair and tell her that everything was going to be okay. But he wasn't the kind to do that. "I... I'm really sore though." She murmured.

"I wanna go home with you. I've missed you so much... Nora too... Last night... I... I wanted to spend it with you. I hadn't seen you in so long and I wanted to show you how much I missed you." Her eyes looked up at him almost pleadingly. "I wanted to give myself just to you... To show you how much you mean to me, a little way of thanking you for everything you've done for me." Her hand moved up his leg, the tips of her fingers brushing at his thigh.

She wanted Edmund to love her. She would do anything for his love, his attention. She would do anything to be his and only his, to have him devoted to her. "I..." She stammered slightly, unsure if she should tell him. "Edmund..." She whispered. "Ed, I love you. I love how you make me feel... I just want to be with you. Turn me, please... make me like you so I can be with you forever. You know I'll do anything... Anything to show you what you mean to me... To get you to truly love me." her voice was pained as she moved to her knees, now laying her head on his lap.

"I know you don't now... But you do care about me... you could love me. I'll do anything to earn your love." She closed her eyes and sighed with a shudder. Her naked, thin body looked so frail and fragile, the dark bruises marring her skin. "Please... Just love me Edmund." She begged again.

He couldn't help it. Hammer burst into laughter. A great bark of a laugh that nearly sent the cigar flying from his mouth. He recovered though and crushed out the cigar on the stele tabletop. "Look, sweetie," he said soberly enough as he tipped her head back with his fingertips, "here's a lesson for you. You become a vampire, the first thing you get disabused of pretty quickish is love. Romantic as "forever" sounds, the truth is, people can't stand to be monog for 40 years, muchless 400."

Hammer smiled, his cold blue eyes somehow even chillier. "And here's another lesson for you - when it comes to us, you'll be on your own sooner or later. I'm here for you now, ducks, but there'll come a day..." he trailed off, leaned back. When he spoke again his voice was brisker, more businesslike. "I'll turn you - evenually. When the time's right. 'Til then, just... trust me. You need to know more 'bout the 'life' or you'll be in for a fucking miserabel eternity.

Alison looked up at him pleadingly as he tilted her head up. She'd almost started crying as he laughed, but now she understood.

"I... I didn't mean love me forever... I know you're not like that. You're not that kind of guy." She stammered. "But just... Love me for a little while. Make me strong, make me pretty like Nora. I don't want to be me, please Edmund." She whimpered, nuzzling at her hand.

She knew that he wouldn't love her forever. He would get bored with her, he wouldn't want her around and he'd get tired of her.

"No... Now Edmund. Please! I want this! I want everything like this!" She whimpered. "I hate being so weak. I hate it. I don't want to be so pathetic anymore, I know I am... But I can't help it like this..." She crawled up into his lap.

"Please... Please Edmund. I can handle it... I'll be everything you want me to be, I won't be breakable, I won't be so delicate. You can do everything to me if you turn me Edmund! I wouldn't ever say no to anything, you know I wouldn't, not to you." She pleaded with him. She reached up a trembling hand to touch his lips. "Please Edmund... Don't make me stay so weak... I hate how I can't give you everything you need or want. But I could... If I were like you."

OK, so logic wasn't the way to approach this. Hammer didn't give a flyer if he turned her or not, but some... customers, they liked humans. Especially human customers. "It's not all about you, Allison," he said, putting a slight edge into his voice. He pushed her away, not angrily but enough so that he could stand. "What exactly have you done to show me that I ought to do you such a favor? Sure, you're a good lay and all, but I know how to get those."

He spoke coolly, not angrily. He figured if he got "angry" with her she'd pop into tears and blubbering and he didn't want to deal with that. "I said I'll turn you and have I ever lied t o you before? No, I don't think so. So tell you waht, we wait a few months and you do some for me and I'll keep doing for you. I think that's more'n fair."

But she knew she could do so much more for him if she weren't a weak, pathetic human. She could do so much more and have so much more done, why wouldn't he see the logic in it? "I told you Edmund... If you turn me, you won't have to be careful anymore. You won't have to even think of hurting me. I could do anything you wanted me to do, and you could do anything to me without having to hold back, or fix me." She was hard pressed to keep her voice from pleading.

Alison's eyes dropped, her expression fell and her body slumped, curled up in his lap.

"No... You haven't..." He might have stretched the truth or she might have misunderstood him, but he'd never lied to her. He was really the only one. "But Edmund... I already said I'd do anything for you. You have to know that by now! I don't want to leave you and you know I won't just run away after I finally get to have everything I want." She nearly whimpered. Months? That... That could be so long from now! And if he really wanted her to do things for him, wouldn't it be easier if she were a vampire?

"How... How long Edmund? Please, just tell me will you? Four? Six? I don't want to wait too long. I want to be with you, and I don't want you to have to hold back because of me." She said with a frown. "But whatever I do, wouldn't it be easier if I was a vampire? Wouldn't it help if you changed me? I mean what could it hurt?"