The last week had been the worst in Vicky’s one hundred and four years. Seven days ago she’d been Victoria, Vampire Queen of Charlotte, Homecoming Queen, Lieutenant to the Dux, and overall badass. Now, she was just another Soulless chick in the city formerly known as Charlotte.

Half a million bucks in cash for the identity of her homework bitch. Vicky hadn’t gotten something so effortlessly in her entire life. Then, things went downhill a bit. That same homework bitch turned out to be a Nephilim – a half-human, half-angel hybrid – that almost killed her. Then, things took an upturn when said homework bitch got staked through the heart: on a sacrificial alter, in the middle of her school gym, at the homecoming dance, as part of some Infernal ritual. That was supposed to be mission accomplished, but then shit got real.

Infernal Lords of Hell and Archangels started coming out the woodwork for a battle royale that Vicky didn’t stand a chance of surviving, so she got the hell out of there as fast as her immortal legs would carry her. She’d prepared form something like this. Not necessarily Michael and Satan going at it in downtown Charlotte, but a point in time when her coven would need to go underground for a while.

It was sheer, dumb luck that the safe house she chose to hunker down in was on the outskirts of the city. She hadn’t been buried underneath mountains of shit. Half of her coven had ended up that way, and when the sun came out the next day they died like the rest of the humans that were trapped in the rubble. Now, Vicky wasn’t queen of shit. She was just another refugee trying to piece her life back together after a single night ruined over a century of hard work.

On the bright side, and she was struggling to find an upside to anything that had happened in the last week, hunting was easy. People were packed into little tent cities in open fields, so no one noticed if someone disappeared during the night. The remaining dozen members of her coven were well fed, strong, and awaiting further orders. The problem was that no orders came, and with all of her businesses destroyed that left her with only one real goal: repopulate.

Hospitals were the best place to start. The desperate and dying whose mortal coil was about to be cut were always a good source of recruits.

Five other Soulless, indistinguishable from humans in the daytime, gathered around her at the entrance.

“Everyone bring me one recruit. I’ll evaluate them back at the camp. Either we’ll roll the dice and turn them, or they’ll be breakfast.” That got a small chuckle. “I want everyone in buddy teams. No one goes anywhere alone, so pair up. Elisa, you’re with me.”

Elisa was the former manager of her adult entertainment business. She’d only been a Soulless for a few years, and looked to be in her mid-twenties compared to Vicky’s eighteen. She had OCD, which made her a great accountant and manager, but not great at walking the apocalyptic wasteland of Charlotte. Vicky was the first to admit she was a little protective of the younger Soulless, and only part of that was her usefulness once they could get their business empire back up and running.

They already had a little side business going in the ten cities. You could destroy a city, but the oldest profession never really died, so she was making lemonade with a bunch of lemons that had been eaten, shit out, and sat on by a Mamma June lookalike before she got a hold of them.

Vicky was a survivor, she’d come out of this on top.

“Can I help you?” A disgruntled nurse stepped right in front of Vicky before she took three steps through the door.

“M…m…my…mom. I can’t find her.” Vicky turned on the waterworks and buried herself in Elisa’s chest.

They didn’t look like sisters. Elisa had dark, chalky skin and Vicky looked like a porcelain doll, but despite that the nurse’s demeanor thawed.

“Head down to administration and they’ll help you look.” The nurse placed a hand on both girls’ shoulders and walked away. Vicky decided administration was as good a place to start as any.

Together, they walked the crowded hallways of the injured and dying. Vicky had ordered everyone on her scouting party to feed before leaving. Being in a place with so much blood was like a diabetic with shitty impulse control walking into a candy shop. It was a recipe for disaster. Being fed would help mitigate that risk.

They found administration and walked right past the busy desk. They found a stairwell that led up and took that. Only after the door closed did they realize it electronically locked and you needed a key card.

“Crap,” Vicky muttered, but headed upstairs anyway. “We’ll start at the top and work our way down.”

They had to wait for ten minutes at the top floor before a middle-aged woman exited. “What are you two…”

“Give me your clip board, ID card, and white coat.” Vicky filled her words with power and influence.

The woman’s jaw dropped and her eyes glazed over as the compulsion worked its way into her mind. Vicky felt the exertion take a toll. She’d never met a Soulless under a hundred years old who could compel humans, and at a hundred and four she was brand new to this ability. It felt like she’d skipped breakfast and lunch – normal and blood – by the time the woman handed over the coat, clipboard, and ID.

“Go take a two hour nap in the breakroom and forget this ever happened.”

Hunger exploded in Vicky’s gut as she handed the coat and ID to Elisa.

“What?” The younger vampire looked confused.

“I look I should be at cheerleading practice.” Vicky waved her hands to show her teenage body. “You can pass for a doctor, or at least a med student who’s helping out with the disaster. I’ll be your assistant.” She took the clipboard while Elisa put on the doctor’s attire. “Ok, Doctor Miller,” Vicky read the name stenciled in blue thread on the coat, “let’s do rounds.”

Vicky didn’t know what rounds really entailed, but she watched Grey’s Anatomy before the show started to suck, and she was going to put all that knowledge to use.

Step one was to get her blood. There were plenty of people near death, so she just quickened along the process. Once she was fed, and Elisa confirmed there wasn’t any blood splattered on her clothes or face, they got back to work finding potential candidates to reform the ranks of her coven.

The top two floors didn’t hold any promising candidates, and Vicky had to use more compulsion to make them forget. The ones who didn’t look like they’d last the night she killed to replenish the energy she lost. It was a lather, rinse, and repeat type of night until they reached floor number three. There they found a willing participant.

“I…I’m never going to walk again.” According to her chart, the young woman was thirty-three, and had been in good health before a falling piece of masonry had crushed her legs into a million tiny pieces. Her record said she ran marathons.

“You’re never going to get out of bed again. I’m surprised you’re alive at all.” Elisa played the part of concerned doctor checking the chart very well. “There is nothing we can do but make you comfortable.”

“I’d get used to having someone help you onto the crapper though,” Vicky stepped in when the woman was on the verge of tears. “I’ve hope you’ve got enough saved for in-home care or you’re going to end up in some type of assisted living.”

Vicky had found the woman’s Facebook page while Elisa was talking to her and read her like a book: consummate professional, working her way up the corporate ladder by forgoing family. Her parents were dead and no boyfriend. It was all about the job for her. In short, she was someone no one would miss, and if her company did come calling, a quick explanation that she died from complications sustained in the unexplainable event would be enough for them.

The woman was crying now. Her whole life had changed. When people were like this, when their hope was dimmest, that was when Vicky gave her speech.

“The way I see it you’ve got two choices. One, you become a vegetable hermit living in your assisted living center bed and watching Netflix until your mind eats itself and you want to eat a bullet. That way sucks, and I prefer door number two. That door will let me heal you and make you better than you were before.” Vicky smiled, but didn’t show fang just yet.

“Better?” the potential vampire candidate wiped away a few tears. “Like an experimental treatment.”

Vicky couldn’t stop a short laugh from escaping. “No. There is nothing human medicine can do for you. What I’ll do is drain you of your blood until you’re nearly dead. Then I’ll feed you some of my blood. Next will be horrible, excruciating pain. You’ll want to die. You’ll beg me to kill you, and after a little I will. Then, twenty-four to thirty-six hours later you’ll open your eyes and be faster, stronger, and smarter than you ever were as a human.”

Now Vicky let her fangs slowly slide down from her gums.

The woman’s eye’s bulged, but she didn’t scream. That was always a good sign.

“You…you…are you…”

“Yeah, but if you’ve read any teen novel in the past thirty years you’ve got the wrong idea.” Vicky didn’t elaborate anymore about the process.

The truth was that she knew what happened after she killed the candidate, and it was something not many Soulless were aware of. After the candidate received a vampire’s blood, a link to Satan’s realm was created and their soul was literally sucked down to Hell. The curse the Infernal Lord developed kept the body intact, and over the twenty-four to thirty-six hour timeframe a new construct for them to hold æther harvested from humans was developed. If the new vampire awoke from the process, which only one in ten did, they would be mad with hunger. None of that fit in well with the rest of the sale’s pitch.

“So, what do you think?” Vicky held out her hands and smiled. “You want to live forever?”

There was only a moment’s hesitation before the answer, “Yes.”

“Excellent!” Vicky clapped, and blurred over to the candidate’s side. “My name is Vicky. I’m the leader of the local coven, so I’ll be your new boss when you come out of this.”

“Mary.” The woman replied, and even held out her hand with the wrist up.

Vicky thought before turning away the person’s wrist.

“I’m not going to bite you wrist or neck.” She shook her head and smiled at Mary. “Those are the first places people look. You’ll be dead, sure, but for us to get you out of here someone is going to have to confirm that. Checking your neck or wrist for a pulse when there are two fang marks raises suspicions, and after what those assholes did we’re kind of on humanities radar.”

“Vampires did all this.” Mary’s eyes widened at her potential perceived future power.

“Shit no.” Vicky moved around the bed until she was in position. “That was the Divine and Infernals. They’re the top dogs. Both are kind of dicks, and they’re dragging the whole supernatural community into the open with their bitching and moaning.”

Vicky moved quickly and yanked Mary’s legs open. The woman gave a blood-curdling scream that was snuffed out by Elisa putting her hand over Mary’s mouth. The sun had officially set, and their superhuman strength was back.

“We bite here.” Vicky located the femoral artery on the inside of her thigh. “I know it’s kinky, but it’s the last place people look.”

With a century’s worth of expertise, Vicky plunged her fangs into Mary’s thigh. The woman only thrashed above the waist thanks to her injury, but Elisa easily held her in place. Vicky drank deeply until she felt Mary reach the precipice between life and death. She pulled out from between her legs, used a hand to stop what little bleeding would occur, and slashed open her fingertip with her fang. Elisa removed her hand from Mary’s mouth, and Vicky shoved her finger down the paraplegic woman’s throat.

Mary didn’t even gag she was that close to death. Vicky felt she’d hit the sweet spot. If the candidate wasn’t near-dead enough then the transformation wouldn’t work. If the candidate was already drained dry, then they were just dead.

“Drink up,” Vicky commanded and Mary sucked weekly at her finger.

The effect wasn’t instantaneous, and Vicky worried she’d failed, but then Mary started to cry and thrash like she’d been set on fire. She bit down hard on Vicky’s finger, and only succeeded in cracking her teeth on the granite-like skin. Vicky pulled her finger out and held her hand over Mary’s mouth to keep her relatively quiet.

The monitors next to the woman’s bed were going crazy. Her pulse was over two hundred and climbing. Vicky didn’t remember the pain from over a century ago, but she remembered the immense gratitude she felt toward the person who’d killed her and put her out of her misery.

“Pillow.” She commanded, and Elisa handed over what only a hospital would call a pillow. “Hold her down.”

Elisa’s hand clamped down on Mary’s arms, while Vicky planted one hand on Mary’s chest and used the other to hold the pillow over her nose and mouth.

“Good girl. Everything is gonna be alright.” Vicky quoted Bob Marley as Mary‘s struggles grew weaker and weaker until she fell still and alarms started to blare.

“Code Blue!” Elisa stuck her head out into the hall. A team was already pushing through the crowd with a crash cart.

“Ignore us.” Vicky ordered them all as they came in and wondered what the two girls were doing in this woman’s room.

The team immediately obeyed, and Vicky was so flush with blood she didn’t even notice the compulsion’s expenditure. The team worked on Mary, but it wouldn’t work. Her soul was being claimed, and there was nothing a group of humans could do about it.

“I’m calling it.” The man in charge looked haggard but emotionless. “Time of death, seven eleven.”

“We’ll take it from here.” Vicky put a little less power into this set of instructions. More like a forced suggestion than an order.

“You two, take it from here.” The team leader pointed at Vicky and Elisa before ordering the team out of the room and off to try and save some other life.

“Easy peasy.” Vicky disengaged the brakes on the rolling bed and maneuvered Mary’s body out into the hallway.

They’d know in a day or so if Mary would be the newest member of the Charlotte Vampire Coven.

Vicky was so busy pushing the bed that she nearly missed him. His eyes were down and he was avoiding eye contact. She would have completely missed him if the highlighter yellow Crocs hadn’t caught her eye. Even then she had to do a double take.

she watched the battle at the school from a distance. She’d seen who’d lived and died, and the person walking down the hospital hallway was definitely dead.

“Well, spank my ass and call me Shirley.” She handed the bed over to Elisa. “Take care of her. I’ve got someone I need to catch up with.”

Vicky peeled away and followed Gerry from a distance just in case it wasn’t him. A few minutes of tailing the man and she was positive the Dux of Charlotte was still alive and kicking.

Having a Dux meant they’d have a plan, and having any sort of direction was something her coven desperately needed now.