Calla felt horrible when she woke up, and tried to gather her bearings.

'That's what a bullet through the head does.' she groaned as she wiggled around. 'We don't like it, it feels disgusting.' As her mind processed, she realised she was bound in incredibly tight chains, with her neck anchored to the floor and her arms behind her back. The room was plain and dark, a wide open and empty hall. Except at its head, where four chairs sat, the two centre ones slightly elevated and all four made from pure gold with a scattering of jewels. 'More like thrones.' she snorted before her brain made the connection. 'Thrones...royal family...' She half wished she could go back to unconsciousness, her life would be decided by these strangers and she was powerless to stop it.

She was helpless and she needed control and in her mind she resolved to say nothing. She'd already been handed a death sentence if they knew about the wolves so why give them anything else.

Calla wasn't sure how long she waited before a procession of people walked into the hall. The two at the front, a blonde haired, blue eyed man and woman moved beyond her senses and appeared on the thrones.

'Impossible. Bad. Very bad.' she thought as the power radiated off of the pair, and the man in particular.

A few other people came into the hall, at human pace, and Calla had to bite her tongue when she saw Leena, Xavier and the other clan leaders from Sostine in attendance. An elderly purple eyed man led them all to the side to sit down and watch. And a final man suddenly appeared before her, with orange eyes and hair. Unlike the two who sat on the thrones, the aura this man gave off was pure dread. He was dressed in a knight's regalia and looked ready to draw his sword at a moment's notice.

"My King, my Queen." the orange man bowed to the couple on the thrones. "And the gallery." he motioned to the people sitting at the side. Calla's gaze flickered over and she noticed there was eight people she hadn't seen walk in.

'It's not just these three.' her mind said as she glanced at the orange man and blonde pair. 'Every one of those eight people could kill us with ease.'

"And Calla." the orange man finished as he looked down at her. "I'm Interrogator Virgil, Ancient rank." he did her the courtesy of an introduction.

"Calla do you know why you're here?" he asked sternly.

"No." It wasn't a lie. She didn't know exactly the reason she was here or where here was.

"I see." he nodded. "You're here because you have been accused of knowingly assisting the werewolves in attacking vampires. A traitor to our kind if you will."

"Okay." she said dully.

"Okay?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "You have no defence?"

"We didn't say that."

"I didn't say that." he said.

"What?" she asked confused.

"You're referring to yourself. It is 'I' and not 'we'." She responded in a low hiss as the gallery chuckled at her expense. Except Leena, who was throwing her a murderous glare.

"We," she emphasised, "didn't say that."

"Oh? Is there more than one of you?" Calla squirmed her way up so she was kneeling and then furrowed her brows in confusion. Her eyes flickered around and she glanced at nothing in particular.

"We don't know." she finally responded with a shrug. Virgil looked doubtful but he shared the same gift as Xavier, the ability to tell lies, and he could tell that she was being true.

"Interesting." he murmured and nodded at the royal pair. "We've got a lot of time, so why don't you tell us about yourself." he requested but Calla didn't open her mouth. "Tell us!" he compelled.

It was the first time she'd been compelled as a Blood-letter and the man before her was an Ancient. The pressure was suffocating, trying to make her follow his orders. The royal pair and Virgil watched with wonder as Calla's eyes glazed over, only to snap back to normal a second later as she tried to fight the compulsion off. The weight of his command had her warring for control of her own mind, and this time she didn't have the link to aid her. When her eyes did finally glaze and hold, more than five minutes had passed.

"Our name is C-Calla R-R-Redgrove." She shook her head viciously after saying the sentence, releasing a hiss towards Virgil. It was tiring her out, and the only reason she could fight it at all was because the command was so vague.

'We can let the compulsion take hold, but control what we tell them....No, it's dangerous to let it take full hold, hard to shake off....But we are worthy now, we can do it if it goes too far, we must conserve our strength for now.' Calla went completely rigid and her eyes glazed over once more. Virgil felt the compulsion take full effect and released a huff.

"Finally. I wonder if her craziness is what held it off?" he murmured as he inspected her closely. "So Calla," he said as he sat down before her with crossed legs, "tell us about your childhood."

"Our childhood?" she asked blankly, confirmation could be sought under the compulsion.

"Yes. Tell us, how did you grow up?" Calla momentarily shook before going rigid again and Sage, from her throne, found her will admirable.

"Unloved." It was a personal thing Calla didn't want to divulge but she saw no reason to really fight.

"Hmm. How was your relationship with your parents?"

"Mother was a drunk and father had a second family." she tilted her head. "We had no love between us. The closest we ever got to our mother was after we became a vampire."

"That's unusual. What happened?"

"It was the first night we were a vampire. During the day we were stuck under a bridge and couldn't move. When night came, mother was the first human we found." Calla appeared lost in her memories. "We coaxed her, gently, sweetly, into having a bath with us. We sat behind her, washed her, cleaned her, especially the neck. Then we consumed her." A few jaws dropped at Calla's admission. Intentionally killing a parent wasn't too rare amongst vampires, but for a newborn to do with such patience was unheard of.

"You became strong very quickly for a vampire. We know you've become a Blood-letter, your eyes tell us that. But no-one seems to know when you became a Childe. Tell me how and when you did so?" The Sostine group watched with curiosity.

"We were a week old vampire when we reached Sostine, In Lillypud we drained this little angel called Lisa, we bagged her and stabbed her, letting the blood fall into jars." Calla, wanting to mock Leena a little, turned to face her without breaking the compulsion. "It was when we first entertained the idea of blood farming children....there was something so satisfying. Anyway," she faced Virgil again, "the little angel was the niece of Benedict Farrow. We later killed him and he became a part of us, letting us become a Childe." Calla heard the sound of a chair pushing back as Leena stood and shouted.

"But that wasn't even a month after you arrived in Sostine!"

"Sit down!" Virgil shouted at her, the force of which knocked her back into her seat. "Calla, is what she said true? Did you become a Childe less than a month after turning."

"Yes." she responded emotionlessly.

"As a side note, do you like to feed from children?"

"No."

"Pardon?"

"We said no."

"But you did."

"Yes."

"What changed?" Virgil asked in the hope that maybe the small vampire had developed a conscience and could be guided on the right path.

"It is selfish." she said simply.

"What is?" he asked her but she pursed her lips and shook her head. "Tell me." he used the full weight of his compulsion only to find it shaken off by a trembling Calla as the daze was wiped from her eyes.

'We won't tell them about it. We won't. It's ours.'

"Virgil," Metrix spoke up, "whatever she is hiding won't be brought out by questioning. I grant you permission."

"My King." he responded with a bow.

'Permission for what?'

Virgil placed a hand on her head and she felt a sudden intrusion in her mind. It felt like worms crawling through her skull.

'What's he doing? Get him out of us! Out!' her thoughts became frantic and chaotic and Metrix and Sage could see Virgil grimacing in pain as he delved deeper into her mind. Calla could feel him fighting through her memories and soul, trying to reach the thing she held most dear.

'Out! Out! Not yours! Never yours! Ours!'As the words screeched out in her mind Virgil recoiled and took a couple of steps back and gasped.

"My King." he said as he straightened his clothing, coughing to suppress his embarrassment. "Whatever she's hiding is something fundamental to her, the closer I got the more jumbled and messy her thoughts became before she pushed me out."

To say Metrix was surprised was the understatement of this century. A Blood-letter able to throw off the compulsion of an Ancient and stop their ability. He kept his gaze firmly on Calla who had fallen back onto her backside and buried her face in her knees.

"Ours. Not yours. Ours." she whispered quietly as she rocked back and forth. The connection had become her obsession and she would let no one touch it. It was hers, it belonged to her and was the only thing she lived for now. The possessiveness of the link was all encompassing and had taken away a lot of other things she found joy in.

"Dear." Sage spoke up as she too looked at the girl. "Let me question the girl?"

"Go ahead." Metrix said, indicating for Virgil to step away. Sage walked down and crouched before the rocking young woman.

"Calla." she spoke softly and Calla felt something. "Can you put your knees down and look at me please?" Calla did so and glared strongly at Sage for being treated like a child.

"I'm not going to command you. You and me are going to have a talk." the several millennia old vampire said.

"A talk?" Calla asked. Vampires didn't normally talk, and whenever Calla had met one stronger than her they had tried to compel her.

"This thing you're guarding in your head, it's important to you?" Sage queried to be met by a nodding Calla. "And you won't talk about it?" A shaking head told her no.

"Do you want to talk about anything?" Her voice was soothing and heavenly to Calla. Something about it called to her.

"Your voice is very pretty." Calla stated matter-of-factly.

"Thank you."

"It likes it." Calla said as her connection seemed to hum. 'The connection is linked to this woman? But it is not her. It knows her. Deeply. Eternally. It like it when she makes me happy. It lets her make me happy.'

"What likes it?" Sage tried again only to be met by Calla once again shaking her head. "Do you like anything else?"

"We did." Calla said with a bit of melancholy.

"What did you like?"

"Hunting, draining, screaming, fighting, feeding....growing stronger." Calla finished quietly.

"And you don't like those any more?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because it is selfish." That she used the same words again was not lost on anyone in the room.

"So it won't let you do the things you like?"

"We can still do them."

"Then what's the problem?"

"We don't like them."

"You mean it stops you liking them?"

"Yes. If it doesn't like it then it stops us liking it." Everyone bar Leena, who was personally affected in the war, felt a pang of pity for the girl.

"Calla, does it control your emotions?" Calla just looked confused before shaking her head.

"No, it just stops us liking things."

"So what do you like right now?"

"It and your voice." Calla said softly.

"My voice? Why would it let you like my voice?" Sage looked at Virgil who indicated the small Blood-letter was telling the truth.

"It likes it when you make us happy."

"And my voice makes you happy?"

"It lets your voice make us happy." Calla corrected. "It likes you." she murmured.

"Does it ever make you do things you don't want to?"

"No. It sometimes stops us doing things we want to."

"But you said it didn't stop you doing things." Sage sounded genuinely confused.

"We said it didn't stop us doing things we like. It has stopped us from other things."

"Do you mind telling me?" she coaxed and began to run one of Calla's shins, which Calla didn't react to.

"We don't mind." she responded sounding a bit lost at the strange sensation of contact. It was the first time she'd been touched outside of a violet capacity since she was a child. "It likes us to cover up. We wear this body suit because it doesn't want us to show any skin."

"That sounds a bit old fashioned, more suited for someone of my age than yours." Sage smiled at Calla and her mouth twitched in response.

"We can't have sex. We've never had it." Vampires were quite famous amongst the supernatural for their lust and this made the onlookers pity the girl more. They were selfish creatures, lives meant nothing. But to be denied a basic instinct for so long was appalling. "We tried, we pictured but we felt sick. Man or woman, vampire or human, we felt sick at the image. It told us it was wrong, we knew it was wrong. So we didn't. We could only be nude in front of children, we liked to feed nude." she clarified, which explained to Sage her preferences. "We couldn't, can't, relieve ourself. We have to wait and be worthy, untouched and unseen."

"Calla that doesn't sound very good. Why do you listen to it?" Sage asked.

"It is possessive and it is selfish. But it is ours." Calla seemed to give a genuine smile as she looked down at her chest. Sage stood and walked back to the throne where Metrix was with Virgil and they spoke in hushed whispers.

"It's a rather sad case." Sage closed her eyes and put her face in her palms.

"Indeed my Queen, but from her words we can determine that whatever It is did not make her ally herself with the wolves."

"He's right dear. It's just a shame she's so remarkable. If she can achieve such mental prowess as a Blood-letter imagine if she were a Reagent or an Ancient." Metrix was upset too, but the law in such cases was clear. "We have no way to control her, and whatever It is can manipulate her entirely. The amount of harm she could cause if given the time to grow would be unrivalled. And there's no guarantee we could harness her ability either, if whatever It is, is linked to it then the drawbacks are too high."

"My King, my Queen. Who shall deliver the verdict?" Virgil asked quietly as the pair turned to face the empty looking woman sat on their throne room floor.