[Louise]

I awoke. A smile lit my face immediately as I recalled the night before. My dreams had been…interesting. However, they had been tainted towards the end. Someone else had been in my residence. I felt it. And I didn’t like it at all…

I slipped from my place of rest and pulled a white cotton gown around my body, flicking my hair loose as I tied the gown tight.

I crossed the cool crypt and padded bare foot up the stairs and through the door into the main lobby. Martins was waiting for me as ever.

“Corin?” I asked.

“The Hunter is upstairs. I believe she may have woken in the past hour Madam.” His voice cool and dissapproving once more.

I nodded and again…an echo of someone else seemed to pass through the building. I paused with a frown creasing my brow.

“Madam?”

“I’m…I’m fine Martins. Prepare breakfast for us.”

I watched as my faithful servant walked off and then I turned and crossed the hall to the library. I crossed to the chair she had sat in. My hand draping along the material as I felt her afterimage lingering there.

Her blood had tasted unique…and yet there was something to it and I quickly crossed to the study. I pulled papers, documents and files from shelves until I found the note I wanted. Yes…her lineage had vampire blood in it. No wonder I felt her still. I was tasting my own distant families blood as well as her own. I smiled...I wondered how she’d feel to see us as distant cousins?

I padded back into the library and looked out at the grounds as my mind reached for my guest. She seemed more distant to me this morning, something that perplexed me. It disturbed me actually…when I should be in joyous victory.

Martins walked in with a silver tray and placed it on the small table by the window.
“Please call for her” I said with a measurement of unease in my voice.

Had I made the right decision about leaving her armed? I felt sure that by giving her that security she would stay. I wasn’t concerned that she would use them straight away…her mind was too like mine…intense and needing to be fed with knowledge and experience. She wanted to know everything about me almost as much as I wanted to know her.

But what if I had miscalculated the impact of her lineage…her duty to HER ancestors. I picked a piece of cold meat from the breakfast platter Martins brought in and devoured it quickly.

I waited, with some trepidation, for her.

But my mind slipped to the night before once again. Her body, her soft moans...how delicious she felt to me...how she tasted...how her blood tasted...the senses rolled through my mind and once more I could feel her thoughts. But she was stronger. She knew I had felt her too. However, I knew I would overcome…as I have every single one her kind before her. My confidence poured back into me and I allowed a devilish smile play upon my lips.