Upon feeling her blood rushing to his lips, Ash’s desire to possess her physically was finally overwhelmed by his even more potent desire, to taste of that power she had first bestowed on him only weeks earlier. Ash’s mouth moved urgently against her, hungrily drinking her in at the same time as stimulating her own now awakened nerves.

When the tremors of pleasure began shaking her body below his lips, Claire finally had to force her senses to return to her as she buried her fingers in his long locks, gently coaxing his mouth away from her as he looked up at her again, his passion more than obvious in those dark eyes.

Ash took a long moment to catch his breath as their eyes met for several seconds, before finally breathing his next words to her, “Do you want me inside you?”

“Inside…?” Claire managed, her own words hoarse, as she looked down at him, her fingers still weaved tightly through his dark locks.

“Do you want me to pour my seed into you now, giving you even more of the pleasure that seems such a stranger to you, so often?” he asked, his desire turning all his words into mere breaths, still.

“Ash…” she began in a whisper, trying to find her way to the rest of the sentence. She paused another long moment as he continued to look up at her longingly, “Lay back.” she finally managed.

Ash at first looked surprised by her statement, but his perceived love for her caused him to only take a moment before obeying. He pushed himself up from her hips and easily laid back upon the ground as she had requested, his eyes watching for her to move to fulfill those desires of his even more so.

Claire took another slight pause before finally moving on her knees toward where he now laid back upon the ground for her, just as she had asked him to. She gently leaned over him to press the gentlest kiss to his lips before bravely moving her hand inside the cloth that now barely hid his obvious arousal. She gently moved her fingers to caress his hardness before moving her kisses downwards to his neck, Ash easily allowing a pleasurable moan at her attentions.

When it was obvious that he was indeed about to allow himself to reach that final moment of passion beneath her fingers, she changed the motion of her lips against his neck. Claire then parted her lips and moved to sink those fangs deeply into his neck once more, causing him to immediately pour himself over her fingers as she eagerly replaced the blood she had shared with him only moments earlier, therefore doing her part to fill his desires completely, all in one passionate moment between them, at last.

When Claire awoke at the next night’s sunset, there in she and Sean’s bed, next to him, her emotions easily began screaming through her brain once more, especially once her eyes immediately moved to where Ash sat upon the floor inside their bedroom door, vigilantly attending to his post. She swallowed a bit as her eyes also moved to where Baila sat reading once more, offering Claire a timid smile as she woke, while Ash’s eyes simply stayed fixed on Claire, his pools of deep brown speaking so many more words than he ever actually vocalized.

Claire quickly turned her eyes from both of their servants and just as hurriedly began to push herself up from the bed, when Sean, who had also just awoken, moved his hand to encircle her wrist, stopping her departure.

“What is it?” she managed in a near whisper, stopping her movements, though also keeping her eyes downwards instead of turning them to any of the others, including Sean, as she spoke to him.

“You don’t have to run from the bed the second the sun sets.” he told her, though spoke gently, whilst still refusing to release her tiny wrist from his fingers.

“I wasn’t running.” she replied, though her voice barely made it past her lips while her pools of green remained locked on the floor next to their bed.

“Yet.” Sean pointed out, then shook his head at his own reply before moving forward to his next sentence, “I want you to stay, and talk with me.” he told her in the same gentle tone he almost always bestowed on her, despite any other issues between them.

At the sound of his words, Baila turned her eyes away with an uncomfortable blush as she moved to stand, giving a simple look to Ash who also forced himself to his feet as well, though with the slightest of sighs.

“Where are you two going?” Sean asked as the two took a step towards the door, though his words easily caused all three of his companions to look back at his question in surprise.

“We…I thought…I just assumed…” Baila stammered her response, looking quickly back at Ash for some sort of support, despite the still quite limited relationship between the two.

“I meant all four of us should talk.” Sean stated simply, causing looks of confusion to pass over both she and Ash’s faces while Claire quickly turned her eyes back to him with a look that seemed to show an actual fear of what conversation Sean could possibly have in mind.

“What’s going on, Sean?” Claire finally forced herself to ask, despite her worry over what his answer would be.

“Please, sit, both of you.” Sean told Ash and Baila in the same quiet tone as he gestured to the end of the large bed where he and Claire still sat with the covers pulled up to their waists over the modest amount of clothing they had slept in throughout the day.

This suggestion caused even more perplexed looks in his companions as Baila simply swallowed hard and moved to awkwardly take a seat at the end of the bed, while Claire once again turned her eyes downwards.

“You can join us too, Ash.” Sean told the other man with a smile that somehow seemed sincere despite the obvious friction between the two of them.

Ash narrowed his eyes further, not able to help the way his gaze moved to Claire for her approval of the idea, but as she gave no visible reaction, other than her obvious tension, he finally took a deep breath and moved to take a seat at the foot of the bed, across from where Baila now stiffly sat, also centering her gaze on the floor.

“The reason we all need to talk is because of the conversation I had with Haven last night.” Sean finally began after another pause to plan how to start the conversation.

“Haven?” Claire managed to prod him into a further explanation of his odd new desire to suddenly have all of them interacting with each other at once, when that scenario had been practically unheard of before this night.

“Yes, his sire wants him to go to the far west to take a position in his court.” Sean stated, not making any of his own eye contact then, though still somehow forcing confidence into his voice.

“Hasn’t that always been our plan?” Claire managed after realizing that Sean was waiting for some kind of response before continuing with their little summit meeting of sorts.

“Yes, but the two of you both have reasons of your own to stay here, for at least a while, and Haven has also said that he would like Claire and I to stay behind as well, at least temporarily.” he added to lighten the statement.

“He said that?” Claire asked, shocked by this being the first time she had heard of that fact as well.

“Yes, for a while.” he repeated to her gently as he moved the hand upon her wrist only slightly to give her hand a small comforting squeeze.

Claire swallowed a bit as she tried to keep her expression clear, “And Ana and Chan, they would be going with him, as well?” she asked worriedly, though her voice did begin to show a stammer towards the end of her sentence.

“Of course. They are his servants, after all.” Sean told her softly, but pointedly.

“So, it would just be the four of us, then?” Claire repeated, the shaking of her voice more obvious then, Ash’s eyes turning toward her as he took in the information with his own share of anxiety, oddly enough.

“Just us and our servants. Just like he’s been saying it would eventually be.” Sean reminded with another slight squeezing of her hand.

“Eventually yes, but Sean, it’s only been four months.” she argued weakly.

Sean just allowed a small smile, “But not for us though, not really.” he smiled, “The two of us have already been together almost thirteen years, and we survived just fine without him, before.” he attempted to assure, despite the trace of worry in his own voice.

“But, everything was different, then.” she returned, her voice taking on a pleading tone, seeming to forget all about the others present in the conversation, as Ash turned his eyes downwards sadly in response to her obvious upset.

“Well, we were different then.” Sean returned, managing another small smile, “But luckily, we’ve changed together, remember?”

Claire just shook her head and remained silent for several more long moments before allowing herself to voice at least one of her numerous fears, “But how will we even survive, Sean?” she asked as he turned his eyes back to her before she quickly continued, “How will we live? You can no longer travel around trying to sell your art, or my dresses, Ash will never be able to have a means of making any money in a white man’s world, Baila can’t go back to bringing strange men into her bed every night, when we’re living here with her in this house as well…how will we survive?” she repeated in a nearly panicked tone, causing all three of them to avert their eyes.

Sean then swallowed and paused another long moment before finding a response to her worries, “We don’t need all the things we used to need to survive, remember? Hell, we don’t even need food anymore.” he attempted to assure.

“Well, they do Sean.” she told him as she gestured to Ash and Baila, and shook her head in defeat, “They are still human, even if we aren’t, anymore.” she finished in a whisper.

Sean sighed again, “I’m sure Haven won’t leave us penniless. He’s not trying to end us, just trying to get us to learn how to survive, on our own.”

“Even if he does leave us more of his money, how will we even spend it on any of the necessities, Sean? We can’t even go to the market during the day any longer. Who would we send in our place? Ash wouldn’t ever be able to even go near town without…” she just shook her head again as Ash cast his eyes further downward.

“I could still go, Miss Claire.” Baila offered in her own near whisper.

“Yes, assuming they don’t ask a former whore how she still has any wealth at all, without any longer selling her…wares.” she added with a coolness strengthened by her upset.

Baila blinked back some tears as Sean just looked away as well, before the fair-haired girl spoke up once more, “That is one advantage to being a whore, though.” she took a breath, “None of my customers would actually remember me, or at least my face, anyway.” she finished in a whisper.

After another long pause and a deep breath of his own, Ash was then the one who spoke up from his place at the foot of Claire’s side of the bed, “My people have survived for hundreds of years, without any of the white man’s wealth. I can find ways for all of us to survive, without even having a strong wooden home such as this to shelter us, and without having any of your people’s riches. It’s what my people have always done: Survived.” he stated simply, causing them all to glance his way.

Claire looked down once more before her fear moved her lips to speak again, “But your people, they can live outside, surviving off of the plants and trees and the very earth all around them, and living happily, in the sunlight, together…Sean and I can’t ever do that. We can never even let the sun so much as touch our skin again, not ever.” she finished as her tears of red welled up.

Ash swallowed again as the two fair-haired among them looked downwards once more while he instead moved to place his seemingly sun-kissed hand over the snow-colored fingers of her right hand, “The one who made you into these strange nighttime spirits that you now are, he helped my people, and I will do everything I can to help his. I will help us all to survive, and protect all of us, especially you, Claire, any way that I can. I will never let any sort of harm come to you, I promise.” he assured her sincerely as he gently moved his other hand to her cheek above where Sean still clasped the hand that bore her wedding band, swallowing hard as he watched their interaction, somehow feeling equal parts fear and relief, at once.

There was another long moment of silence, wherein Ash finally moved back from Claire, allowing his own slight squeeze to her hand before he reclaimed his previous seat at the end of the bed. Finally, Sean spoke up once more, “Baila can tell those in town that she is merely selling your clothing and my art because she now works as our servant. They will have no reason to doubt her. Ash can stay here and tend the fields and hunt animals for their food, and ours.” he swallowed slightly as he turned his eyes back to Claire, “Working together, all four of us will get through this. We will find a way to attain our day to day necessities. We just have to learn to depend on, and trust, one another. We will survive.” he assured her once more as he placed a gentle kiss over her lips.

“I want to believe it will be that easy.” she whispered against his lips once the kiss ended.

“It will be.” he smiled, allowing another kiss upon her cheek, “Which will leave us with only one remaining problem.” he added at last.

“What’s that?” she asked with a bit of fear returning to her voice.

Sean took a moment to broach his next subject, and the even more pressing one, at least when it came to the painfully serious wall he and Claire had continuously come up against since their transformation, “The four of us should spend this evening tending to the fact of the urges we have now cursed you both with.” he attempted, causing both servants to look quickly back his way as Claire’s tension visibly quadrupled.

“You mean giving them our blood again, tonight?” Claire stammered, forcing her eyes not to turn toward Ash again, considering her very passionate sharing of her blood with him the previous night.

“There are also other ways to deal with these urges, which I’m sure will come up quite often, considering the very nature of such urges, as well as how long we will all be in each other’s lives, in such a necessary way.” Sean stated simply as he finally relinquished her now slightly trembling hand as he instead moved to a place on his knees behind where she stiffly sat, both of them still only clad in their undergarments.

“What are you talking about, Sean?” she asked in a raspy tone, neither Ash’s nor Baila’s eyes able to move from where Sean moved closer to her, now placing his hands gently over Claire’s bare shoulders above nearly translucent undershirt she normally wore under one of her several revealing, though restricting corsets.

“We all know what I’m talking about.” he whispered against her ear as he moved to slide the shirt slowly down from her pale shoulders.

“You can’t possibly mean…” she swallowed again, tensing even further, though remaining unable to pull away from him, or make eye contact with either of the servants who now sat mere feet away, atop the same mattress, looking nearly as shocked as Claire.

“After this many years together, you know exactly what I mean, my love.” he told her in the same sultry tone against her ear as his fingers moved downwards from her shoulders towards her barely concealed breasts.

Claire let out a slight gasp as she closed her eyes in an attempt to force another sentence to her nearly trembling lips, “How is forcing them to watch our lovemaking going to help their urges, honestly, Sean? You know better than that.” she managed as his fingers slid beneath the thin material to cup her breasts.

“They are more than welcome to indulge those urges with each other as well. After all, there are two men and two women here, atop this very bed. The opportunities for every urge to be indulged, all right here, right now, all together, they’re endless.” he whispered as he guided her shirt to her waist, exposing her pale skin even more fully as his lips hungrily began moving over her neck.

Their desires enflamed even more easily than their companions’, Baila and Ash forced their eyes away long enough to meet one another’s. With ragged breaths they cast only one more glance back towards their masters before finally reaching for one another, to finally indulge not only Sean’s wishes, but even more importantly, their own frighteningly strong needs and urges, as well.