Six years had passed since she moved to Sostine and Calla was pleased with how life was going. The Swarmers had granted her control of the apartment block after her battle with Benedict and she stripped the place bare, wanting to be rid of the scent of other vampires.

With no need for sleep or rest she made quick work of doing the place up but she needed more money. So for a short time she became a Seeker as the supernatural community liked to call them. She'd find targets that fit the description of clients and deliver them. Want a black, fifteen year old cracked up boy toy or an untouched Asian twenty three year old? Calla would find and deliver. She had no qualms about trading life and she made a very healthy living.

For her own eating habits Calla continued on as she had before until the Swarmers had told her she could no longer get ones of good breeding. She was relegated to any runaways and strays she could find. To say this angered Calla was an understatement, still she bent her knee and accepted the order.

In fact it became one of her greatest inspirations. Calla needed a steady stream of human blood and with her money she set about learning construction. Once she had she converted the apartments into multiple rooms. Each one was able to hold eight of her rooms, all with a small bathroom and shower.

They were all windowless of course and each room had a small caged entryway where Calla would step into once she'd opened the secure steel doors to each one. All of this was to one aim and it took her nine months, working most hours everyday to get things how she wanted.

Each apartment had a small medical bay and bagging area. The bottom floor was hers, and all the higher floors were completely secure unless one could punch through steel or brick. Blood-letters could, she'd learned, but she just wouldn't piss them off for now.

When all was said and done she set out capturing the humans she wanted. She had six floors each with eight rooms, so forty eight slots for the people she wanted. Her plan was simple. She'd become a blood farmer. Taking children from the ages of seven till fifteen or all different colours and backgrounds and siphon off some of their blood.

The basement floor would act as her storeroom and she'd cater to the niche of child blood. Calla had learned it wasn't only Leena who found such acts disgusting, it was quite a common view point amongst her kind. But Calla broke no laws and her new idea was easily accepted by the Swarmers as it'd minimise her kills.

Calla definitely wasn't the only blood farmer, but she was the only one who treated the humans she drained well. There was a difference in the quality of the blood, vampires could tell and soon demand outstripped supply. But Calla made a healthy amount of money.

Caring for the humans was quite easy. She caught an older human lady, one she deemed fit for the job, to look after the young ones and made their rooms more inclusive so they were somewhat happy. Calla constantly updated the rooms to keep the humans as happy as she could. All their basic needs and some of their wants were met. The amount she drained from them was little and quickly replenished.

She even put in an internal intranet with touch screens in the rooms for the humans to talk face-to-face with one another and stave off loneliness. Calla had few problems with her new residents, she'd gone for the more quiet and demure ones.

Outside of her career, once the whole system had been established, she began to take self-defence lessons every night. She couldn't use her full strength but she could slowly learn the different forms and ways to move the body. Her instincts were good but every improvement would help her.Learning how to use a gun and different weaponry had also been important.

Over the six years Calla also learned a lot about how vampires operate and the supernatural world in general. The forest dogs she'd heard of before were actually werewolves, other were creatures existed as did demons and shadows. Calla had heard of angels, pixies and elves also existing but she'd no reputable sources to confirm this.

The Swarmers, apparently, were only a small fish in the big bad pond of the vampire world. Sostine itself was home to four ruling clans, the Swarmers, the Celina, the Kali and the Dacus. Then there was the moderator clan who sat above all of them, the Valenmour clan. They were a side branch of the ruling royal family of vampires that did not interfere with anything unless it broke strict vampire laws.

Calla had only heard little about the royal family. Funnily enough, they were called the Lawe clan. The king was Metrix Phens, his queen Sage Merry and their son Calder Augustus. Calla had also heard murmurs off a sadistic daughter called Hylee Veals. She was supposedly very violent and cared little for humans and vampires alike.

'Our soulmate.' Calla had thought to herself with a chuckle at the time she was told.

So life was good for Calla, but right now she had a problem. Her strength as a Childe had grown very little as she had been unable to hunt other Childe. Newborn rogues did little to help her and if she wanted to keep her tidy apartment set up and blood business she couldn't just go out and drain another Childe.

'What to do, what to do...' she muttered in her mind as she stalked back and forth on the roof of her apartment. 'We have three roads to choose from; we can try and hunt a Blood-letter, hunt a few Childe or hunt a lot of newborns. We don't know.' she groaned as she rubbed her face in frustration.

'Maybe we should step up our newborn feeding and hope for a chance of a Childe? That'd be much better than going out and starting trouble.' Calla pulled her brunette locks, which ran midway down her back, over her shoulder and began to braid them, keeping her hands busy. 'But....there's no fun in hunting newborns. Too weak.'

Her mind continued back and forth until she came decision. She'd play a game, a far larger game than anything she'd done before. If she could make the clans fight one another, then it'd be open season for her and no one would look to deeply into those who vanished.

'That'll do...there are places we can hide in the chaos.'

With a smile on her face she headed back inside. She'd developed an obsession with always wearing a full body suit that covered her from her neck to her toes and she wore it at all hours. She'd changed her initial style though. No longer did she walk around in a hoodie and joggers, keeping her head concealed.

Rather she went for a very expensive, tailor made, female suit, over which she wore a trench coat. She still kept her boots though, they were plain black leather. Calla had been told more than once to wear high heels, but those were made for the point of sex appeal and not practicality.

With her small stature and braided hair she looked quite innocent, other than the red eyes and fangs. And walking out of her apartment now, you'd think she was harmless...because you couldn't see the concealed blades and firearms.There were places in the city that clans didn't operate and it was where she found most of her game.

Once she got a waft of newborn in the face, she savoured it. She'd drank it enough that she no longer found it disgusting, and if she drained them and mixed it with human it would react and become bubbly. It was a new taste she'd discovered a year ago and she couldn't quite describe it. Vampire blood itself lacked life, which was why it tasted so bad, whilst human blood was full of it. But when you mixed the two, you didn't get a happy medium. Rather it was a violent clash and the vampiric blood seemed to enrage and constantly attack the human. And it created new and wonderful tastes.

But that wasn't the plan tonight, it was a simple kidnap kill and drain. Rounding a corner she saw the vampire newborn draining a human in a frenzy.

"Hi." Calla said with false cheer as she walked up behind the newborn finishing its meal. It span round and hissed in her face before its instincts kicked in and it backed off from the still smiling young woman.

"W-what do you want?" the man asked hesitantly, he could feel the woman was stronger than he was.

"Does anyone know you're here?" Calla asked ignoring him and putting compulsion into her voice. His eyes glazed over and he stared off distantly.

"No miss. My Sire is away on business and I operate alone." he said flatly.

"Excellent!" Calla said with a clap of her hands. "You're coming with us then."

The man could sense the danger and tried to shake the compulsion off himself but Calla watched him closely and doubled down on its strength. She began to walk away and his mind tried to fight against his body, trying to stall each step and warn his body of the danger it was in. Calla was a few steps ahead of him whistling happily. Tonight was going to be an easy hunt, which upset her in a way. She missed the challenge she used to encounter when fighting newborns.

About half an hour later they arrived at her apartment and he followed her inside, his insides screaming at his body to escape. But the flow of compulsion from Calla was too great. They entered the first floor apartment, the only one unconverted and Calla sat him down and strapped him into the steel chair. She'd had it specially designed so no vampire would be able to break it, at least below the Blood-letter level. When he was secure she released the compulsion and he shuddered in terror.

"What are you going to do to me?" his voice came out in barely a whisper. He didn't want to be here, to be the target of some sadistic vampire. "Are you going to torture me?" Calla frowned at his words.

"Now why would you think something silly like that?" she asked with a shake of her head.

"We're not enemies, you've no reason to take me." he responded as calmly as he could. "Unless it's for information?"

"Aha." she snapped her fingers at him. "Do you have information we'd want?"

"I've been a newborn for a few weeks, I don't even know the name of my Sire."

"So you don't have information we'd want?"

"Not that I can think of." he lowered his head.

"Exactly. You don't have any information we'd want and we're not going to torture you, don't worry." she spoke soothingly. What other reason could she want him for? Sex maybe? He was quite attractive after all.

"Why am I here then?" his words came a little more confidently now.

"Why do you think?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Sex?" he squeaked out but was met with a look of absolute disgust and loathing. Calla inserted a needle into the newborn's arm and hooked it up with rubber tubing that was connected to a pump machine.

"No not sex."

"So what then?" he enquired meekly.

"This little darling," she patted the pump machine, "is going to drain you of your blood." The man scrunched his face in repulsion, vampire blood smelled as bad as garlic. He knew the action wouldn't kill him though, only sunlight and fire could truly kill his kind, or so his Sire had said. The machine began pumping away and after a minute or so he could feel himself growing weaker.

"W-what happens to me after?" his words slurred a bit at the blood loss. Calla checked her watch and smiled, it was five in the morning and sun would soon rise.

"You get dusted of course." she smiled as his eyes drooped shut and the machine finished draining him.