[i]“So did I hear Booker mention pets?”[/i]

Mila didn’t look at Lisette as the other vampire moved in close again. She gazed past her instead, trying to appear disinterested. But her body was tense. She’d felt better right after that last snack, but it hadn’t been nearly enough and the hunger was quickly creeping up again. The ache did nothing to help her ignore Lisette’s taunts. If anything, Mila felt more belligerent than usual. 

[i]“Mila that is so five decades ago! No wonder you’re so weak, poor thing. I guess you really did need us.”[/i]

She looked sharply at the hand that was condescendingly patting her shoulder and then flicked her eyes dangerously at Lisette, as if to ask if she wanted to [i]keep[/i] that hand. Booker had finished at this point and Lisette withdrew before Mila felt the need to remove it for her. But before long, the younger vampire’s soft voice was purring in her ear again.

[i]“And don’t be afraid to go for it all this time, honey. We can clean up the mess.”[/i]

She had to admit…that sounded good to her. She [i]hated[/i] how good that sounded. Lisette had always been aware of Mila’s subtle resistance to these kinds of barbaric feeding frenzies and was deliberately coaxing her to give in to the temptation anyway. Even if it felt like she was being manipulated, it also felt exhilarating and wildly pleasurable to imagine giving in and abandoning the last traces of humanity she had left. No guilt or uneasiness necessary. No damaged pride, no having to endure sneers from her comrades for her pathetic sympathy. Just the sensation of having her fill, and having it any which way she wanted. Even as she walked briskly ahead of her companions and told herself over and over that she wasn’t a monster, there was still that lingering temptation in the back of her mind. It would probably always be there, both repulsive and alluring, taking the shape of Lisette licking her fingers and winking. 

[i]“Oh, Bookie.”[/i]

Booker had a smug look on his face as he watched Mila turn away. He met Lisette’s gaze and sauntered over to her, still licking at his lips and hands with obvious satisfaction.

[i]”You have a little something right there.”[/i]

He paused to let her wipe at his scruffy chin, and felt her calculating eyes search his features. His own gaze was on her bloody fingers as they pulled away from him. 

[i]“Do you think she’ll stay?”[/i]

“It’s hard to tell,” he replied thoughtfully, taking her hand and lifting it to his mouth as if to kiss it. He pursed his lips to the spot of blood on the backs of her fingertips and licked it clean. There was something casual and routine in the way he did it, rather than sensual. “If she knows what’s good for her, she will. Something’s happened to her though. I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s not just us that’s got in her in a mood. She’s distracted.” He finished with her hand and then let it go. “If we could figure out what it is, we might be able to get her to see reason.” 

When Mila addressed the two of them about hearing a new target, Booker strained his ears along with Lisette in the direction that the eldest vampire had indicated. …There was nothing. He looked quizzically at her.

[i]“I don’t hear anyone...”[/i]

“I don’t either,” he chimed in.

And then he [i]did[/i] hear a voice, sweet and clear, and coming from the opposite direction. He turned to look at Lisette in surprised amusement, just as she turned to grin smugly at him. 

[i]”Oh. Well…”[/i]

“Indeed.”

[i]“Mila, sweetheart, are you sure it wasn’t that way you meant?”[/i]

Mila had stopped walking, but still stood with her back to them, so they couldn’t see her expression. It was shock. She was wide-eyed, like a deer in headlights, her gaze frozen on a single spot in the distance as she frantically tried to calculate her next move. She had to turn around. She had to say [i]something[/i] before-..

[i]“Let’s go see who it is...”[/i]

“Lisette,” Mila said suddenly, whirling around. She couldn’t believe this was happening. In the distance she could still see Charlie’s slender form walking down the street away from them, completely oblivious to the impending danger. Mila felt another painful ache, but instead of it being in her throat in was in her chest. It felt like an icy grip was forcing all the air out of her lungs. Her head was spinning.

“Hold on, I-…I hear it too,” she began again, grasping for the right words. It took everything to keep the desperation out of her voice, though her expression was a little strained. She was moving slowly, trying to place herself between Charlie and the two other vampires. Her eyes were glued to them, keenly aware of their slightest movements, their shifting, smirking faces. She heard the girl’s singing voice start up again and felt another dreadful sinking sensation in her gut. The singing wasn’t loud, but it was just loud enough for their unnaturally sharp senses to pick it up. 

“…I’ll take this one. It’s my turn, after all.” She was still inching between them. “I [i]did[/i] hear something over that other direction though. It must have moved out of range. Why don’t you check it out? There’s no need for us to go one by one. You don’t have to wait for me. I’ll finish with this one and meet you over there.”

Why had she let them come this way. Why hadn’t she changed their course earlier in the night to some other part of the city. She hadn’t known Charlie would even be in this part of town, but still she might have, she c-could have…

They would kill her. Booker and Lisette weren’t stupid. They would recognize that there had been some kind of connection between she and Charlie, however damaged it was now, and they would make sure this little game ended with the girl dead – if not to just to mess with her, then to squash the faint glow of human feeling that Charlie had coaxed out of her again. Mila would have trembled if she weren’t so entirely focused on keeping her composure. She felt like she was going to be sick. Still she tried to reason with her two companions and to keep up the pretense of not recognizing the girl as convincingly as she could muster. 

“If I’m going to join you two,” she added suddenly and looking pointedly at them, knowing it was something they wanted, “I’ll want to know you can give me the luxury of feeding alone sometimes. It’s a…a habit of mine. From being on my own for so long.” She would do it too, join them if it meant they would turn around and walk away from this. It would mean at least a few decades of being harassed by the both of them, dealing with whatever weird tension there was between she and Lisette, and probably being changed for the worse, but at that moment she would have done [i]anything[/i] to keep the two wretched demons from getting anywhere near Charlie. 

“You can grant me that at least, can’t you?” She hated that it almost sounded like begging, but she said it anyway.