Tales of Dylak-Leem - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Beneath the Forest Part 1

It was the small hours of the morning, some time before daybreak, and the University Quarter of Dylak-Leem wafted distant shouts and laughter through the open window with the warm autumn air. Keo raised herself to her feet, black eyes unhappy, and looked down at the nude white-blonde woman spread out on the bed before her. The sated lady gave her a slow, lazy smile, her chest heaving as she caught her breath, her body slick with sweat and sex. "That was great, Keo. You're really good at this!"

Keo turned away, face tightening. She shrugged slightly. "Okay." Reaching for a towel, she began to mop at the untrimmed tangle of her black pubic bush.

"You could talk to me a little, though," her recent partner said, pouting a little. "Are you staying? We could have wine."

"No," Keo replied. Her expression grew even sourer. "Don't drink anymore. Not wine, anyway. You know that."

"Oh. Right. Well, we could play chess! Also, no offense Keo, you're GREAT but I wouldn't mind a little foreplay before you bury your tongue in my pussy. And I'd like to touch your breasts. I'd like to even see your breasts! You always leave your shirt on, and--"

"Please, Gertrude, just drop it," Keo snapped, mopping angrily at her crotch. Her slickness had made a mess of her, as she had feared, which is why she'd pulled her pants down around her ankles before beginning. "Not interested."

"My name is Fuckslave!" the comely golem replied sharply. "Stop trying to rename me!"

"Fuckslave isn't a real name!" Keo's voice rose slightly. "I can't fucking call you that! Miria just named you that because she's a degenerate pervert. I'm not. You need a decent name so that I'm not embarrassed to use it."

Fuckslave stared at her, eyes narrowing in displeasure. "Now look. You made a deal with God-Mistress Miria to come here once a week to fuck me... without consulting me. You've been doing that for weeks. You don't make a single effort to talk to me or give me pleasure or even tell me it was good for you too. You just get your fill and leave til next week like I'm a piece of sex furniture. And you have a problem with calling me Fuckslave? You sure don't mind treating me like one!"

Keo colored a bit, anger rising in her. She struggled for a retort, and couldn't find one. The golem had a point; it was more than a little hypocritical of her. "I don't... I don't come here for sex, do you understand? I come here for food!"

"Isn't that the same thing for you?" Fuckslave replied, still irritated. "I know you get an orgasm."

"I don't want to!" Keo snarled, throwing the towel down. "I hate this!"

Fuckslave just shook her head. "You have issues, girl. Look. Would it kill you to give me a little foreplay next time? Since I'm helping you out?"

Sighing, Keo pulled up her pants and reached for her belt. "Don't know how."

"I can walk you through it. It's fun! Also, I want to play with your tits." Fuckslave sounded positively hungry. "I like tits."

Oh gods. Keo's face turned red. "They're nothing to get excited about," she mumbled.

"I'll be the judge of that." The golem crossed and uncrossed her legs. "We'll see if you can make me orgasm before you bite me next time. We can cover fingerwork, and licking, and kissing, and--"

"If I do all this pervert stuff will you please let me call you something else?" Keo mumbled wretchedly. "Even Egrid was scandalized by Miria naming you that, and Egrid is only one step removed from a whore."

"You could call me 'my love'," Fuckslave said, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. "That's not perverse at all."

"Fuckslave it is then," Keo muttered. "At least we only meet in private."

"I'd love to go out on a date, but God-Mistress Miria has forbidden me to leave the tower," Fuckslave said apologetically. "Otherwise we could get a meal and go dancing at a festhall, or rowing on the river. Have you ever had sex in a boat? I've never had sex in a boat."

"Where is Miria, anyway?" Keo said, frowning. "Haven't seen her since the job, despite coming to her tower every week for our feeding sessions. She avoiding me for some reason?"

"Oh, she's always a bit tied up these days. You know how it is when you let your work get away from you. It sort of pins you down and then you're fucked."

Keo nodded. "Yeah. Had weeks like that when Lise and I were doing contract work." She shrugged. "Don't really want to see the bitch anyway."

"Oh, don't be that way." Fuckslave jumped up and hugged her, grinding her sweaty breasts into the short vampire's unhappy face. "I'm made in her image! It hurts my feelings!"

Squirming, Keo grimaced and tried to wriggle free. "Stop that. And put on some clothes, you slut. We're done for today."

"Ooooo, talk dirty to me!" Fuckslave rubbed her crotch sensuously against Keo's upper thigh. "Tell me more about how slutty I am!"

"Gods damnit!" Keo swore angrily, jerking forcefully away. She looked down at her pants with dismay. "You got your filthy drippings all over my good leathers! This had better come out, or I'll..." She struggled to think of a threat that the golem would take seriously.

"Am I going to be punished? Are you going to discipline me?" Fuckslave squealed, bare bottom wiggling with excitement. "God-Mistress Miria has a selection of whips and painful clamps if you want to--"

"Enough!" Keo snarled, "I'm going!" and stormed off towards the door, buckling her belt as she did. She paused in the doorframe and turned. "Same time next week."

"See you then! Remember... foreplay!" The golem waved happily.

Moodily, the black-eyed thief slunk out of Miria's tower and into the twisting streets of the University Quarter, feeling like the evidence of her recent activities was written on her face for all to see. In truth, few people paid much attention to her, except for a few who reflexively checked their purses as the short figure in the dark cloak and leathers passed by.

She had never much liked the University Quarter; too much sex, too much magic, not enough people carrying full purses or easily-fenced objects. Keo didn't like magic; she didn't understand it, had no training in it, and it usually meant trouble when it popped up in her job. That was one thing among many that made her weekly feeding sessions with Miria's golem uncomfortable.

Because Keo didn't actually need all that blood. She hadn't tested the limits of how long a full meal could sustain her, but she suspected it was months or even years. From what Amelie had told her, the older the vampire the less they required, and she was still fairly young... so it would only get better as time passed. The real reason she wanted a weekly refill was so that she could burn her supply practicing and refining her new abilities.

Some of those were simply what she thought of as 'more power'; superhuman speed, strength, healing her wounds, etc. But others were uncomfortably close to what she considered to be magic. She had learned to command some animals, paralyze others, a few other tricks. Keo could sense there was much more, but she hadn't yet gained the knowledge or the strength.

She'd get there eventually, though. Just practicing and learning what she had, relatively harmless powers, had gained her a greater yield and control from the blood she burned. And the best thing about it all was that Amelie had no idea she was doing so and growing ever stronger. One day, she would find out, and Keo intended that to be the very last thing her master ever learned.

Moving quickly through the city, she left through a gate by the hills and summoned the ghostly coach once she was out of sight of prying eyes.

---

Keo arrived back at the crypt a half-hour before daybreak, sighed, and descended the stairs.

Her master was waiting for her. Countess Amelie D'Bastian wasn't much for clothing around her tomb, but Keo had never seen her without her rich collection of jewelry; gemmed earrings and necklace, a belt of golden links, armbands set with rubies, rings of various sorts, and an anal plug of gold inlaid with platinum and carved to resemble a snake's head. When Keo had first seen her, the elder vampire's skin had been a grey-blue, but after drinking all of Keo's lifesblood Amelie had turned a pale pinkish-white, like a living person who didn't get out in the sun much.

She was lounging on the stone lid of their coffin, reading a novel, when Keo entered,. "Ahh, little mouse," she said absently, not looking up. "You've been drinking."

"Got hungry," Keo said shortly. She walked to the armoire she'd brought back from town a month past and began to doff and hang up her clothing. "Stopped for a quick bite."

"I almost worry about you, my love. You are terribly thirsty, even for a newly risen one. Especially given how much you seem to dislike it. I hope you are being discreet?"

"Yes." Keo tugged off her jerkin. "I don't kill them. Hardly ever. Just little sips. Mostly from drunks."

"Ahhh, fond of blood with a little alcohol in it? Many are. It is a way for us to still enjoy the fruit of the vine." The Countess gave a restrained laugh. "But I am impressed that you have learned such self-control, to be able to stop. Most young ones, they cannot."

Keo grimaced as she stepped out of her pants. That was true enough; she killed most of the people she drank from whether she wanted to or not. "It's because I don't use my blood much," she lied. "So I'm mostly full when I drink and I'm not that thirsty to start with."

"I see." The Countess flipped a page. "I wish you would test your power a bit more, little mouse. You will stunt your growth if you do not, and for me to have a weak and contemptible protege, it is unthinkable. You must become a most potent and feared mistress of the night."

"Don't want to," Keo replied sullenly. "Don't like it."

Amelie sighed. "You are pouting, my love, it is adorable. But it is also a great trial for your poor master."

Keo grunted, and sat down in a corner, legs pulled up against her chest, dark eyes shadowed.

The crypt was silent for the next half hour, save for the sound of Amelie flipping pages. Then, as if by a sudden signal, Keo and the Countess both rose at once, slowly standing.

Quietly, eyes cast down, Keo crossed the chamber to her master. Her eyes caught sight of her reflection in the standing mirror; lank black hair unkempt and shoulder length, short, somewhat pear-shaped body with a slim chest and big hips and backside. The woman she was moving towards by contrast was tall and busty, almost statuesque. In the past what was going to happen had caused her deep horror and revulsion. There was still an element of that, but it had happened so many times now that familiarity had bred a certain contempt. And also, while she hated to admit it, the anticipation of how she was going to kill Amelie had given their liaisons a certain pleasurable thrill, the same sort of thrill she had always gotten from burglary, mugging, or grave robbing.

They met and embraced, Keo's mouth rising to met the Countess'. Their tongues slid out, entwined, as their hands slid across each other's naked bodies. The lid of the coffin slid open by an unseen force, and Keo pushed Amelie down and back, drawing a playful titter from the elder vampire. Breaking the kiss, the black-eyed thief laid Amelie down in the coffin, then descended down to mount her. One hand went between her master's legs, one to her breast. She kissed the Countess' neck, moving down to her shoulder.

The lid slid shut.

In the darkness, she felt Amelie begin to fondle her ass, the older vampire gasping a bit with pleasure at the thief's clever fingers on her clit. "I have not had such a lover in ages," the Countess breathed. "You will be a fine consort and heir, little mouse. But you have much to learn. The time of your infancy is nearly over, and you must learn our ways."

Keo said nothing, just moved her mouth down to suckle at the vampire's left breast, hoping to shut her up. It worked for a while, the Countess giving way to throaty moans of pleasure.

But not forever. "Tomorrow evening, we are going for a trip," Amelie told her between gasps. "To visit others of our kind, a distance away. You will learn to sleep elsewhere than our coffin, for a time." Keo's eyes widened, and Amelie laughed. "Oh, dear love, you have such hope! Only for a time. There is no escape that way. This trip is important, though. You must learn how things are done. You must meet people, acquire social graces."

"Not social," Keo replied around a mouthful of areola. "Don't want to be."

"It is not up to you, little mouse. So few things are. You are--" The Countess's words broke off in a groan as Keo's fingers dug into her cunt at the same moment her thumb tweaked the elder vampire's clit. The short thief pressed her body up and forwards, bringing her head next to Amelie's.

"How about when you have an orgasm? Is that one of the few things?" Keo savagely kissed her master, fingers suddenly exploding into movement, legs and body writhing down against the other woman. Her hatred mixed with the thrill of danger to inflame her, and she worked her mouth and hands with something like real passion.

"Ahhhh... ahhhhh....." The Countess clenched her legs around Keo and gasped as she was fingered and caressed. "You--"

Keo's lips cut that off, and the two vampires kissed hungrily.

It wasn't long before, to Keo's malicious satisfaction, Amelie shuddered and had an explosive orgasm.

Keo withdrew her mouth, and said nastily, "I see a few things are still up to me, Master."

Amelie gazed at her adoringly, a faint post-coital flush giving her face more color than usual. "Ah, my own love. You are so good to me! In pleasing women, you are without equal."

Keo flushed, at once embarrassed, repulsed, and a little flattered. "Am not," she muttered.

"I love when you are so forceful and forward. When you make me a woman, your woman. But now, dearest one, it is time for me to give you pleasure. Whether you wish it or not."

Keo felt her muscles stiffen. She whimpered as Amelie rolled her to the side and her master's hands slid around her hip and ass, one going down to her black-furred pussy, the other to play with her puckered asshole.

"I will be creative, but not overly much," the elder vampire promised. "You have a big night ahead of you tomorrow." Her tongue lengthened, slid from her mouth, coiled around Keo's small breasts.

---

Lise walked into the crypt an hour later, possessing the body of a young woman she had found in the slums.

She listened to Keo's gasps and screams and moans coming from the stone coffin. Quickly, she laid down on the stone lid and began to fixedly masturbate to the sounds of the lovemaking coming from within. Unlacing her bodice, Lise exposed her body's large breasts to the cool air and pinched the small nipples stiff, imagining her lover's teeth upon them. Her other hand pulled the hem of her skirt to her thighs and she lewdly spread her legs. Wetting her fingers with her tongue, she stroked her furry mound and curled her fingers, pushing them between the fleshy folds of her pussy. She imagined a second lover thrusting into her furrow as her thumb rubbed her clit.

Some time later, after a satisfying voyeuristic orgasm and the coffin silent, Lise slid off the stone and straightened her dress. She departed the crypt to find more fun with this new body.

---

Amelie and Keo set out the next evening, just as evening began.

Before they left, somewhat to Keo's surprise, Amelie had brought out trunks from some hidden storage space within the crypt. The elder vampire had dressed in skimpy black lace underwear and black stockings, then donned a low-cut crimson gown seeded with emeralds and pearls. For Keo, she had laid out a riding costume of black velvet trimmed with silver, tight around the hips and ass, with high black boots and a ruffed collar of white lace secured with a silver brooch. It was by far the most expensive suit of clothing Keo had ever worn, and seemed tailored to her perfectly. Despite herself, she couldn't help but admire herself in the standing mirror. Keo was under no illusions about being a great beauty, was actually rather glad she wasn't one, but seeing herself attired in clothing tailored to flatter her body was an unexpectedly enjoyable thing.

Amelie noticed, and made an amused noise. "I should have preferred a gown for you, but a riding costume is perfectly suitable for a lady who is travelling. And I fear it suits your difficult personality better."

"It's fine." Maybe she could keep it.

They loaded several more trunks into the coach... apparently a lady of the Countess's stature required a lot of luggage... and then set out from Ghasthauver Cemetery along the river road, travelling inland.

Sailors aboard the great barges stirred uneasily and fumbled for amulets and lucky charms as the coach rode past, unaware of what was there, but sensing that it was nothing good. As the darkness drew down upon the land, the skeletally-thin ghostly horses pulled the coach faster and faster.

They crossed the Kesarde River at Elfslattern Bridge, passing by the ruins of the old Bridge Inn where Laurelidilas the Golden, Warrior Princess of House Drocowe, had endured the consequences of her oath to service every willing crosser of the bridge for a hundred years after she failed in her charge to hold the bridge against the armies of Warlord Parduul. After losing its most celebrated attraction, the inn had diminished until it was razed by fire a hundred and twenty years ago and was never rebuilt.

They passed by several road patrols, who somewhat to Keo's surprise took no notice of them. "You'd think they'd take more notice of how little you feed your horses," she muttered.

"They do not perceive their true shape," the Countess said dismissively. "It is an easy matter to drape them in illusion."

"I see." Keo watched as the patrol rode past; hard-faced men and women on warhorses, wearing mail and heavy cloaks emblazoned with a badge she didn't recognize. "Didn't know the roads were this well kept. Soldiers everywhere."

"Normally, they are not," Amelie informed her. "It is this crusade the living play at, against the Goatmen. Disgusting things, are they not? I do hope they are stopped before they overrun our lands. That would be tiresome."

"Tiresome is one way to put it," Keo replied. She had been indifferent to the invasion at first, but the steadily increasing number of refugees and the increasing level of concern in the city was starting to get her worried. 

The number of patrols lessened as they moved further northeast, and now the Countess started to grow noticeably more alert. Several times Amelie straightened and peered out the window at a passing coach or rider.

"Something the matter, Master?" Keo finally asked snidely.

"Hush. We are within the borders of the Convent States now, my love, and we will be for the next half hour. The Nunnery Martial is not as easily fooled as those patrols looking for stray goatmen, and they possess means to effectively battle our kind. We must be wary."

They had one close call; the Countess abruptly drew the coach off the road into a stand of trees and waited, concentrating intensely on something.

Five minutes later a procession of twelve women on foot came down the road, garbed in silver ringmail with gold and white habits, carrying pikes and swords. The leader, a woman with a smooth, round face, bore a staff tipped with a glowing sigil, and she paused briefly, as if catching a scent. Then she seemed to lose interest and the brigade continued on, the silvery rustle of their mail still audible after they had vanished.

After the Countess was certain they had departed, she directed the coach back into the road and hastily resumed their way. 

They passed under the shadow of the great abbey of Monte Vagio, the great soaring edifice looming high atop the mountain it was named after. The voices of the sisters at evensong drifted sweetly down to them, angelic and clear in the cool night air. The road forked around it, the right hand path going deeper into the Convent States and past that to Lothamanaith. They took the downwards sloping left-hand path, the Via Esombra, and the song was still audible as they drove past the jagged Felaien Rock, upon which heretic sisters were hurled from the abbey's western tower. Broken skeletons were strewn across it.

The dark road sloped down, and soon they had passed out of the borders of the Convent States and into Subtersylvania, a valley-riddled, lightly forested region of no central governance. Once it had been the Kingdom of Bratislev, a rather unruly human nation that had periodically warred with both Castahar and the Convent States, as well as the goblin tribes of the Gloamwood immediately to the north. Indeed, several Kings of Bratislev had even tried to cut down wide swathes of the Gloamwood to expand the realm; enterprises that had been bloody and of middling success. 

All this had come to an end when the Great Mortality hit Bratislev particularly hard two hundred years ago, killing a critical mass of the population. The goblins, sensing weakness, had boiled out of the Gloamwood under a temporary alliance of tribes and butchered what remained of the army and populace. The goblins captured the pious, virginal, and beautiful Queen Emanuela II, newly crowned after the death of her kingly father in the plague, and dragged her back to the wood. There, according to witnesses later released by the goblins, the chiefs of the tribes bred her relentlessly until she had sired for them seven half-goblins to be their heirs. Thus the only surviving bloodline of the Kings of Bratislev passed to the forest goblins, and the kingdom was never refounded.

It was known as Subtersylvania now, in recognition of its new status as a broken land south of the great forest. Here and there were pockets of civilization; keeps whose lords had survived the plague and goblins alike, isolated mountain hamlets too remote to be bothered by either, the odd steading of settlers seeking an out of the way, unclaimed place to start over. There had also been riding posts and roadhouses maintained by Castahar along the trade road to the Convent States, to keep merchants safe. With the fall of Castahar to the Drocken, those buildings were gone.

Far more common were crumbling, deserted towns, and dark silent castles perched atop frowning hills. Now and then a goblin warband stalked abroad, but for all their blood claims to it, the land itself seemed hostile to them, and they would often never return to the Gloamwood.

The Countess instructed Keo in all of this history as they rode, much to the dark-eyed thief's lack of interest. Her horrible master had chosen to take her into an increasingly horrible land; she was deeply unsurprised.

As they rolled along a dark valley road not far over the border, the coach slowed, and a moment later slowed again to a crawl.

"What's the matter?" Keo asked irritably. "This isn't our stop, is it? We're in the middle of nowhere."

"There is another carriage blocking the trail," Amelie said with a certain degree of boredom. "And a number of armed men." Her tongue poked slightly out of her mouth, as if tasting the air. "And freshly-spilt blood."

Their coach rolled to a complete stop, and Keo poked her head out of the window.

In a circle of dim light coming from a burning torch lying in the road, she could see a fancy carriage with its doors open. A coachman and another man in rich clothing both lay dead in pools of blood in the dirt. Against the coach, stood a terrified woman with a fancy hairdo and fine clothing with the front of her dress ripped open, baring her plump breasts. Several rough-looking men, peasants by the look of them with rusty swords and axes, were relieving her of her jewelry.

Their leader, flanked by two of his men, wandered to the newly arrived coach and looked in the window. Upon seeing the two women in their finery, he grinned broadly. "Our lucky night, lads!" he called. "Two noble conveyances full of jewels, and three highborn sheaths for our cocks!" He squinted at Keo. "Even if this one isn't the quality of the other two."

"Sort of glad you're an asshole," Keo commented back. "Makes what's about to happen to you, less troubling."

The Countess huffed haughtily, "Deal with this, my love, if you will."

"You're not going to help?" Keo asked incredulously. "Seriously?"

Amelie shrugged. "They're serfs," she commented. "A Countess does not lower oneself to a vulgar grappling with peasantry. One has one's lover handle such nuisances. Besides, you need the exercise."

"Lazy bitch," Keo muttered. Angrily, she opened the door and hopped out. "I'm trying to be a better person," she informed the bandit in a curt tone. "So I'm giving you a chance to leave. Take all the loot from the other coach, but let Lady Hugetits over there go, and I'll let you walk away without a scratch."

The leader stared at her. "You'll sing a different tune with my cock in that big ass, you squat popinjay drab. Strip. Then put your jewelry in a pile on top."

Keo frowned, "Fuck off and die. Actually... just die."

As the bandit chief opened his mouth to reply, Keo burnt a portion of her blood supply.

There were actually many ways she could end this, from dominating his mind (he didn't look terribly bright or strong-willed to her), to taking control of the horses to trample the bandits, to summoning swarms of bats or insects. She could even try death magic, an area she'd been hesitant about experimenting with. None of these were options she wanted to use though, as they would reveal to Amelie just how much she had learned and practiced. So instead she simply boosted her strength and speed to a supernatural level.

Her twin daggers were in her hands and eviscerating the leader before he even realized she had drawn them. Before his corpse hit the ground she was pouncing on the startled man to his right, her blade slamming into his throat. Jerking it free, she spun to find the third man's sword drawn, and an appalled expression on his face. He made an inept lunge at her. She sidestepped with contemptuous ease and thrust both blades to the hilt in his eyesockets, then jerked them free and started walking slowly towards the main knot of bandits.

They had all spun to face her, looking aghast at the sudden turn of events. "Vampire!" one hissed. "VAMPIRE!"

"Yup," Keo replied, advancing. There were five of them. She decided on the order she would kill them, then quickened her walk.

Quickly, one of the bandits reached into a pocket, took out what appeared to be a wafer of some sort of bread, and hurled it at her.

Keo's lip curled... did he think he could stop her with his breakfast? She ignored it.

It struck her cheek and seemed to stick there. Suddenly she was screaming with pain. Her skin began to smolder and darken, her daggers nearly dropping from her hands. Agony coursed through her undead form, and she fell to one knee. Holy Wafer! she screamed mentally, cursing herself for her own stupidity. Some sort of Convent State bullshit. Fuck, that hurts! She needed to do something fast...

Hissing with pain and rage, Keo burnt more blood and pushed back against the sanctified energy. It was strong, shockingly strong, and she burnt more blood frantically as the bandits closed in with sword and axe.

The wafer turned jet black and crumbled with a sulfuric stench. Keo surged to her feet, her skin pale blue now, and eyes glowing a dull red as her burn healed. The bandits recoiled.

Seconds later half of them were dead, some from dagger wounds, others from having limbs literally torn off. The remaining bandits tried to flee. None of them managed to leave the circle of torchlight.

Keo finished slashing the last bandit's back into a red mush, then straightened and walked briskly towards the noblewoman standing against her carriage with wide eyes and her hands covering her bare bosom.

"T-Thank you for saving me from those vile rabble, m'lord," she stammered. The riding costume, low light, and Keo's figure and ferocity apparently combined to give her the wrong idea of her savior's gender. "I'm truly grateful, and would be delighted to reward you if you would only--"

A red haze descending over her vision, Keo smiled ferally and walked faster.

When she came back to herself, Keo was on her hands and knees between a pair of naked splayed legs, her face hovering above a swollen, dripping, pussy. The noblewoman lay on the ground before her, clothing torn off and scattered in shreds about her bare body, her bloodless face twisted in the ecstacy of one final terminal orgasm.

Shuddering, Keo looked guiltily away. Damn, she thought, not again. She wasn't shy about killing people, but not... like this. At least her meal had enjoyed it after the initial confusion. The corpse still bore the marks of Keo's fingers on the plump breasts; how the woman had gasped and squealed as she'd played with them as she ate...

"Damn," she said aloud quietly, then stripped one of the bandit corpe's of its cloak, and covered the woman's body with it, weighting the edges down with stones. At least she looked to have been nobility; Keo's opinion of the gentry was not high. That thought made her feel a little better about the whole thing. Thinking better of the matter, she lifted the cloak and methodically stripped the woman's corpse of her remaining jewelry, then collected the little pile of loot the bandits had already taken and tossed all of it into a bag for later inspection.

Keo pulled the raided carriage off the road and returned to her master's coach. "There," she said unhappily, climbing in. "Done."

"You did take your time," the Countess replied disapprovingly. "Really, in the middle of the road, little mouse? Although she was at least well-bred and healthy."

"I was hungry," Keo replied harshly. "If you'd helped it wouldn't have been an issue."

"If you would learn to manage your blood better, you would not have these issues with hunger," Amelie told her reprovingly. The elder vampire gestured, and the coach rolled onward, it's wheels running over the bodies of the bandits and as it did. "At least you did not let them ruin your clothing. Although that minx you dined on has dripped some nectar on your ruff."

Keo turned and stared out the window, face sullen.

---

Amelie and Keo rode on, through increasingly desolate valleys and passes, until finally, just after midnight, they ascended a narrow road up the side of a crag. Passing through a number of ruined watchposts, they came to a vast stone castle squatting atop the crag, the gatehouse open. The coach passed under the arch, and into the courtyard, and as it did, Keo hissed with surprise, her skin tingling.

"What is this?" she asked, turning to her master.

"You are on unholy ground," Amelie replied. "You need not fear the sun here, nor sleep. Of course, if you do so indefinitely, there will be consequences."

"What sort of consequences?" Keo asked suspiciously.

"You will go quite mad." The Countess laughed at Keo's expression. "Do not fear, my love, a few days will do us no harm. When I was younger, I once stayed five weeks awake in the great Necropolis of the fallen Capitol of Shen-Lagathi, performing rites atop the defiled ziggurat. That was when I was more of a traveler, young and ambitious like you."

"Yeah? Great. You're still completely sane," Keo muttered.

Amelie tittered tolerantly and placed a fond hand on Keo's shoulder, then moved it down to caress one small breast through the black velvet before withdrawing it.

The coach came to a halt in the center of the castle's main courtyard, and three figures walked out from the central keep to meet it. As the two vampires exited the coach, Keo studied the reception committee. In the lead was a tall man... she assumed it was a man... in rusted, blackened armor, an ornamented helm concealing his face. The second was a dark-haired, curvy woman in a daring white dress that left the sides of her thighs bare; Keo sensed immediately that the woman was another vampire. The third was a gaunt, black-robed man with a salt and pepper beard and a strange runic facial tattoo that she didn't much like the looks of; everything about him screamed 'wizard' to her wary senses, and not a semi-respectable sort of wizard like Miria either.

The armored man stopped in from of the Countess, who extended her hand. With a courtly bow, he took and 'kissed' it, or at least brought it to the appropriate place on his helm. "Countess D'Bastian," he said in a hollow, echoing sort of voice that seemed to come from the bottom of a deep, dark well. "Welcome. I trust your trip was well?"

"Well enough, my dear Baron Zagolya. Some trouble on the road, a minor delay in the Convent States. All very tiresome, but such is travel, is it not?"

The curvaceous vampire greeted sweetly, "Amelie, my darling, you're looking wonderful for your age. And whoever is this young man?"

"Why thank you, Lucreze, very kind of you," Amelie replied. "You always had such lovely manners for a priest's daughter. As for this young lady, she is my protege, and heir... Keo."

Lucreze's face tightened almost imperceptibly.

The Baron cocked his helm in a matter that Keo took as surprise. "You have not taken a protege in centuries, to my knowledge, and never an heir. I am astounded."

"She has qualities which I feel make her entirely worthy," the Countess replied.

"I see. Be welcome in Castle Gravenstone, Lady Keo," the Baron said in his cold, echoing voice. "We so seldom see guests."

"Can't think why. Ah, thank you, m'lord," Keo managed, at a bit of a loss. She had always assumed she was the latest in a long line of disposable playthings for her master.

"Very young, is she?" the Baron asked Amelie.

"Just leaving her infancy," the Countess replied. "She's in need of at least a century more of direct tutelage."

Lucreze preened slightly, "I only required fifty,"

"Mmm, yes, you were a rush job, weren't you?" the Countess commented.

Lucreze's eyes blazed, then she favored the older vampire with a sweet smile.

Keo, meanwhile, was peering around the crumbling courtyard. Dim shapes were moving upon the walls, semi-transparent under the moon's glow, spectres of armed men. As she watched, a ghostly huntsman led three equally spectral hounds across the courtyard towards a decrepit kennel building. Amelie noticed them as well and pointed. "You always were fond of your mongrels."

"I do love to hunt. The dogs who have followed me into death are of the highest pedigree. I have made sure to sustain them." Baron Zagolya glanced at the robed man. "Wilhelm here has been most useful in that regards."

"Countess D'Bastian," the robed man said, bowing deeply. "I am an admirer. I read your Principia Nosferatus with great interest."

"Ah. A necromancer. How droll," the Countess replied.

The man bowed again.

The Baron explained, "I have engaged him to tend to my servants and tutor my wife. I fear a good half of my retainers are still indisposed, and Lucreze is not a natural study of the deathly art. I blame her former profession."

Amelie observed, "You do see a nun every so often with a talent for necromancy. But not often, and seldom headstrong enough to attempt to confront a vampire on his own ground."

Lucreze steamed, but said nothing, her hand reflexively moving to a spot just above her cleavage. Keo could just make out a small white mark there, as if a rosary had in the past suddenly become white hot as it hung upon her bosom.

The Baron gestured, "Well, being headstrong is why I married her. It's only worth bedding a woman if she has spirit. Please, come in. You must be tired after your long journey. I have refreshment on the table."

"Why thank you, Baron." Nodding graciously, the Countess followed him towards the main keep.

The rest of the group trailed after, with Keo fighting down an intense foreboding.

---

The interior of Castle Gravenstone was dark and vaulted, ornamented in rich armorial furnishings and tapestries that had once been grand, but now were somewhat moth-eaten. Ghostly servants and attendants floated through the halls, and dimly the rattle of chains could be heard. The entire edifice had once clearly been an impressive, comfortable seat of a wealthy nobleman, but those days had clearly passed.

They entered the great hall, and the Baron sat down at the head of the table and bid them be seated, the Countess on his right, his wife on his left. As Keo moved to take her own seat next to Amelie, she noticed what the table bore and froze.

A young woman on her belly, nude except for a gag and ropes tying her wrists to her ankles behind her back, lay propped on a platter in the center of the trestle table. Her face was terrified under her ragged straw-blond hair, and there was a fresh, blackened brand upon one reddened buttock that was obviously causing her pain. She squirmed and twitched impotently as the company sat down, her fear clearly rising.

Keo swallowed, then sat down. The peasant girl on the table, seeming to seize upon her discomfort, and stared at her pleadingly. With a grimace, Keo looked away.

The Baron explained, "I know you prefer to dine upon female blood these days, so I passed up several promising male specimens until I came across this one picking blackberries. Foolishly far from her village; if I hadn't gotten her, there was a band of goblins nearby that likely would have. She did lead me a merry chase, though, for which I am grateful." His sepulchral laugh echoed hollowly through the room. "My best hound, finally treed her after she lost most of the rest by crossing a stream. Not a virgin, I suspect, but she's been cleaned and branded as permissible livestock according to the old rites."

Amelie looked pleased, "Most kind of you, my dear Baron. One so seldom sees the brand any more. I've always felt it added authenticity to the flavor."

"We are both traditionalists," Baron Zagolya commented. "I do not drink blood of course, but one learns a great deal about such things when married to a vampire."

Keo cleared her throat. "Your pardon, m'lord, but I'm not completely certain of your nature. You aren't a vampire?"

"No, Lady Keo. My kind has many names, but I believe the one most used on the Whore Coast is 'Death Knight'."

Keo's eyes widened very slightly. As a former grave robber, she had made it a point to be more familiar with the various sorts of undead, although in the end clearly not familiar enough. Death Knights were some of the most terrifying undead warriors who rivaled elder vampires and arch-liches in sheer power. She had heard they could only be created by an act so dishonorable that it caused a diety to directly curse the celebrated knight or champion, although Keo had taken that particular bit of wisdom with a sizable grain of salt. "I see, m'lord."

Lucreze smiled, "Oh, do tell her the story, Stepan," she urged pleasantly. "It's most diverting."

The Death Knight's helm turned to regard his wife, then turned to Keo. Gauntleted hands lifted his helm from his head, revealing a moldering skull underneath, bare bone stained yellow and grey. Yet around the skull, Keo could make out a faint transparent shell, the ghostly face of the man he had been. Within the skull's sockets glowed hellish red lights. "You would hear it, Lady Keo?" he asked.

"Ah..." Keo glanced at Amelie, who gave a barely perceptible nod. She turned back to the Baron, "Yes, m'lord, if you will."

"Very well." Stepan Zagolya adjusted his chair, then spoke. "Once, many years ago, I was a proud Baron of the Kingdom of Bratislev. I was no fat aristocrat, but a warrior; no man could withstand me with any weapon, and in all of the King's wars I was at the head of the vanguard. Great honor and glory were mine, and I served my King loyally on many battlefields. Yet I was also known for the justice and wisdom of my rule, and for the chivalry I showed to man and woman, peasant and noble alike. So widely was I admired and praised that my much-loved King rewarded my service by asking me to take his only daughter, Princess Emanuela, to the Winter Ball. As soon as I saw her, I fell in love. And through the favor of the cruel gods, she returned it. All eyes were upon us that night as we danced over and over, then walked through the snowy gardens of the palace under a bright moon."

Amelie listened with the poise of one who had heard this before, but enjoyed the story enough to hear it again.

"We saw each other many times after that. Oh, always chastely; always with a chaperone. Our love did not diminish, but grew. I stormed through tournaments, defeating challenger after challenger, dedicating my victories to her. She gave me tokens to wear and prayed for my success. Finally, we went together to the King and asked to be wed. He gladly agreed, and the date of our marriage was set."

Pausing in his speech, the undead lord shook his spectral head, the bony skull creaking as he did. "But the gods are cruel. That year, the Great Mortality struck. My love and I were spared... better that we had not been! But our King succumbed to the plague, along with most of the strength of the kingdom. Few here at Castle Gravenstone were afflicted, though, and when the Convent States offered aid I gladly accepted. They sent an Abbess known for her healing powers, and she set up a hospital at the keep, to cure those nearby. She was a devoted, intelligent woman, and we had many long talks." Baron Zagolya laughed, the hollow noise carrying a hint of bitterness. "My love Emanuela, now Queen, was at the capitol by necessity. I had not seen her since the plague started, and the siege of my castle by that invisible enemy I could not fight, had left me frustrated, anxious, like a caged beast."

Amelie commented, "The weaknesses of the living, and men in particular."

"Even so," Stepan Zagolya replied with a nod of his skull. "What conceived her lust for me, I cannot say. Certainly I was a handsome and finely-formed man in those days, and fair of speech and carriage. Whatever the source, the Abbess set out to seduce me. She was both beautiful and schooled well in matters of temptation, and I, as I said, was like a coiled spring demanding release. She did not find the matter overly difficult."

The red glow in the eyesockets of the skull flared in memory. "For weeks I knew her body in every way a man can know a woman. She was as hungry to rut as I was, hungrier, and deeply perverse. She intoxicated me, took my mind away from the plague and my worries. At night her lewd exertions would haunt my dreams, and I would awaken in a sweat only to find the real woman fervently suckling my manhood."

"But as the plague dispersed, the forest goblins saw opportunity. Curse their filthy kind! I have heard that the Great Mortality carried off other nations of those vermin, but the tribes of the Gloamwood went untouched for reasons I know not. They boiled out of the wood and fell upon our decimated kingdom, and our warriors were so few... my Queen called every noble of the land to come and face the greenskin host in battle, and I and my retainers rode out. We fought them at the Field of Broken Branches, in the autumn of the year. As always I was in the vanguard, yet my old strength seemed to fail me, conflicted as I was between my love and my lover. I slew many goblins, but not enough. Our host was broken, and we who survived fled back to our castles to prepare to endure a siege."

The trussed peasant girl, silent now, had gone stock still. The black-eyed thief did her best to ignore the naked woman on the table, while listening to the story.

"The Abbess was most grateful I had survived, and she showed her gratitude with carnal acts that left me breathless. We worked together to strengthen Castle Gravenstone against a siege, though we both knew our chances of surviving the full might of the goblin armies were slim should they commit themselves fully to our destruction. I urged her to flee, to return to the safety of the Convent States, yet she would not leave me. Her addiction to my servicing of her had grown to where she would risk her life to be regularly filled and stained with my seed."

"And then one day a lookout spotted riders, coming hard and fast for our gates. The Abbess and I went to the walls to see, and what I saw turned my blood to ice. For it was my betrothed, my monarch and Queen, my beloved Emanuela, escorted by a handful of surviving courtiers and guardsmen, riding like mad for the refuge of my castle. And well they might, for behind them, at a full run and some riding Krav Wolves, came the vanguard of the entire goblin horde.

"As I saw the numbers, my heart sank. They knew who Emanuela was, that was clear, and they were determined to have her. Castle Gravenstone was strong, and we had strengthened it against a siege with a vast number of supplies and repairs to the outer works. Goblins were no siegesmiths or engineers, and it might well be that we could hold for a year or more, in which time a friendly force might come to our aid and rout the goblins, or hunger or internal strife send them back to the woods. Yet these seemed to me only a fool's hope."

"As I stood in despair, the Abbess came close to my side and brought her mouth to my ear. 'Close the gates!' she said urgently. 'Let them have their prize, and we shall survive, you and I. It is the only way.'

"I looked at her, aghast, and she smiled at me. 'Then there shall be nothing in the way of you making me yours,' she said softly. 'Will there?' And she pressed her warm body against mine."

"And I turned, and ordered the guard to shut the gates."

"Emanuela and her party reached the castle minutes later, and pounded upon the gates. They begged, pleaded, screamed. The faces of my men were ashen. Some few leapt from the walls to try and join those below, that they might keep their honor. But my will held, and the gates remained unyieldingly shut."

The Baron clenched his fist, "The goblins were upon them, then. Those below fought bravely. Even my beloved, a lady of soft speech and gentle ways, picked up a fallen sword and hewed fiercely at wolf and goblin alike. But they were, of course, doomed. All of them were slain except for my Queen. They endured her desperate slashes until she could be grabbed by many hands and the sword pried from her grip. Screaming and crying my name in desperation, she was dragged from the gate to the goblin chieftains nearby. The clothes were torn from her body, and I saw my betrothed naked for the first time, lying at the feet of her captors. And then, one by one, the chieftains raped her.

"The piercing shriek of my intended losing her treasured virginity cut me to the bone. Yet I stayed upon the wall and watched my Emanuela sob and writhe and moan under goblin after goblin. The Abbess stood pressed against me and watched as well, her eyes bright, her breath quick. After every chief had taken a turn, they dragged her away, one more prize to return to the forest with, leaving my castle in peace. We had not so much as fired a single arrow from the walls.

"Sick at heart, I left the walls and entered the keep, going directly to the Chapel of Kravos. I knelt before his altar and began to confess my crime, and ask for penance. Yet the Abbess came in after me, and she would have none of this. Tearing open her holy robes, she sat herself upon the altar and opened wide her legs. 'Is it guilt you feel, or arousal?' she taunted me. 'Did watching your lady be fucked by goblins not stir you? Do you not wish to do the same to me?'

"Rage filled me, or lust, or both. I threw myself upon her, and I took her violently upon Kravos's altar, striking her even as I labored between her thighs. I cursed her, the gods, all honor. And as we both writhed in orgasm upon the desecrated altar, the patience of Kravos reached an end. Every living creature within the castle died in horrible agony. It was a slow, terrible death, and when it was over, the keep was littered with twisted corpses. Yet this was not the end, for that night we quickened and rose, doomed to unlife for my crime."

The Baron laughed bitterly. "And yet there was one more cruel, or perhaps merciful, touch to my punishment. For the Abbess did not rise; her corpse remained contorted and lifeless upon the altar. Whether she had been granted a forgiveness the rest of us had not, or if she had been condemned to a separate hell that we might not remain together in death, I know not. And so my dishonorable treachery cost me both of my loves, and damned me for all time."

Silent fell over the table, moody and solemn, broken only by the sound of the wind outside.

Finally Keo spoke. "Gods are all assholes."

The Countess sighed, shooting her a mildly irritated look. Lucreze and Wilhelm both looked amused.

The Baron cocked his spectral head, the skull grinning in perpetual mirth. "You are a blunt speaker I see, Lady Keo. Your sympathy is kindly taken, though."

Keo gave an uncomfortable nod. In truth she thought Baron Zagolya had likely gotten about what he deserved for selling out a loved one in order to get some priestess slut pussy. But his wrathful god had taken the entire castle down with him. It wasn't as if the chambermaids or the men working the stables had any say in his shitty decisions, was it? They'd just been doing the only job they had, unable to leave even if they'd wanted to, given the plague and the goblins ravaging the country. Then sudden horrible death, and eternal punishment for being too near a nobleman with broken morals. This sort of shit was exactly why she hated the gentry and the gods.

Amelie commented, "You found yourself another holy woman in time though. You must have developed a taste for them."

"I suppose so," Baron Zagolya looked to Lucreze. "Her master was willing to sell her at a reasonable price, fortunately."

Keo also looked at Lucreze. "You were a nun, then?" she asked politely as she could manage.

"Yes," the dark-haired woman replied a bit stiffly.

The Baron added, "She was a pious rising star within the Convent States who thought she could defeat Vladav the Night-Feeder alone with the power of her faith," Stepan Zagolya said fondly. "You can imagine how that went. He was the first and last man she lay with as a living woman."

Keo was still looking at Lucreze, and for a second the two winced together in mutual sympathy. It did bring up some interesting questions for Keo, though. She knew there must be male vampires, but wasn't quite certain how they spawned. How do they create new ones? "Do you intend to seek revenge?" Keo asked.

Lucreze bore no emotion. "I'm afraid he is already dead," she replied neutrally.

Amelie lazily repeated what the Baron had said, "A pious rising star within the Convent States who thought she could defeat Vladav the Night-Feeder alone with the power of her faith." She arched an eyebrow and added, "Truly, faith plus a trained battalion of witch-hunters and Nunnery Martial armed with holy water, blessed relics, boxed sunlight, and specially prepared stakes. It turns out that is rather more effective than faith alone."

"They laid siege to my castle," the Baron said darkly. "We drove them off, but many of my retainers have been unable to fully manifest since, and several have... lost full control of their shape. Wilhelm has been trying to do what he can for them using Life Essence."

"It is difficult work, but I am learning much," the necromancer murmured. "I am grateful to the good Baron for supporting my efforts."

"It has been worth the investment thus far," Baron Zagolya said agreeably. "Now, shall we dine?"

All eyes turned to the peasant girl on her platter, who began to struggle against her bonds and whimper. Her wide, terrified eyes gazed pleadingly at Keo, seeming to clearly see her as the only one present who might show her any mercy. Unhappily, Keo simply fidgeted in her seat, trying not to make eye contact. She didn't like this, but there simply wasn't anything she could do.

"Since you are our guest, Amelie dear, you may have the honor of the main course," Lucreze said grandly. "Myself and your amusing protege will take the secondary portions."

"Why thank you, Lucreze, very gracious of you," the Countess said with satisfaction. "I do find myself rather peckish. I haven't eaten since the day I met dear Keo."

The black-haired thief flinched, and again her eyes briefly met Lucreze's in a look of shared sympathy. It quickly passed, though, as the white-gowned vampiress turned to Amelie. "Bon appétit, then."

"Indeed." Leaning forward in her chair, the Countess picked up a sharp knife from its place at the settings and used it to cut the bonds tying the girl's ankles together. As her legs were freed, Amelie took hold of them in both hands and turned her, rolling the naked maid over until she was flat on her back, hands tied behind her, and the straw-colored muff between her open legs facing the elder vampire. The girl squirmed and made muffled cries as Amelie teased and spread the hairy lips with her fingers, toying with the pink nub at the top of the hood. Then, with a ravenous hiss, the Countess brought her fanged mouth to the exposed cunt and bit down, tongue elongating.

The peasant girl gave a long, despairing, muffled scream behind her gag as her back arched, sending her bare breasts jiggling upon her chest. As if attracted by the motion, now Lucreze bent forwards, and seizing hold of the woman by one breast, bent her lips eagerly to the quivering flesh. The scream spiked as the fallen nun bit into the peasant mammary and began to suck, greedily drinking the warm lifesblood.

Shaken, Keo stared, quivering slightly in her seat. She had often drunk from women, mostly Fuckslave, and of course she had experienced the Countess's hunger the night she had become a vampire. But she had never before watched the process without being one of the participants, and she was somewhat shocked by the animalistic hunger on the faces of her master and the fallen nun as they drank from the struggling girl.

Oh gods, she thought aghast, is that what I look like when I feed? It was more horrible than she had imagined.

"You do not dine?" the Baron inquired.

"Ah... I... ate on the road," Keo muttered. "There was a stranded coach..."

The peasant girl's screams had changed to moans, her furred snatch sodden with her own slickness under Amelie's vile cunnilingus. The girl's eyes were wide and she stared down her chest at the two female vampiresses in their rich gowns as they fed upon her naked body, spread on the table like a trussed boar to be devoured.

A faint look of irritation pierced Amelie's feral visage, and her eyes shifted from her meal to Keo. She lifted one hand from the captive's thigh and made a gesture at her unwilling protege.

Instantly, a red hot fire seemed to bubble up in Keo's brain and belly and loins. The hunger was suddenly there, strong, as if she hadn't fed in weeks or was low on blood. With an effort of will she tried to resist, turning her head to look at the tapestries on the walls or anything else, but instead she was drawn back to the scene on the table. It no longer looked horrible. It looked... delicious.

She fought it anyway, for about five seconds. Then her willpower snapped, and with a snarl she lurched forward out of her seat, seizing hold of the writhing girl, and sank her fangs into the free breast.

Baron Zagolya and Wilhelm sat and watched as the three vampiresses devoured the young woman like a pack of starving wolves, her nubile body pinned to the table by their clawlike grips and feeding maws. She thrashed and moaned with helpless terror and passion as they dined upon her, past any coherent thought. All she was now was food, her vulva and breasts the main course at a ghastly banquet for the three undead.

The faces of all three feasters twisted with ravenous lust. As they each gnawed a quivering breast, Keo and Lucreze's eyes briefly met. A sense of kinship and challenge passed between them, along with a perverse sort of satisfaction. Then the gaze broke, and both women focused on their prey.

The girl was deathly pale now and gasping for breath under the gag. Keo could taste the change in her blood and sweat as she orgasmed under their tongues and teeth, the sudden flavour sweet to her. Spasming, the peasant lass orgasmed over and over, pushing her sopping pussy against the Countess's face, her nipples hard and stiff against the tongues of the other two vampires. Her eyes rolled back in her head.

A minute later, the girl gave a final weak spasm of climax and went still. Amelie lifted her head from the unmoving, damp meal and leaned back in her chair, sated, dabbing delicately at her chin with a napkin. Keo and Lucreze continued to each suck and lick at the empty breasts for several more seconds, before reluctantly lifting their bloody mouths from the girl's bosom.

For a good minute all three sat and rested, their faces stamped with the same satisfied leer, exchanging almost coy glances. Then, slowly, Keo began to come down from the feeding high. She glanced at the pale face of the dead girl, distorted in a ridiculous expression that made it clear exactly what she'd been engaged in when she died, and felt a little sick.

I'm just like the rest of these devil bitches, she thought unhappily. Nothing but a monster.

"Delicious," Amelie pronounced, her skin noticeably pinker than it had been. "I certainly cannot fault your table, my dear Baron. Was it not excellent, my dear?"

"Very tasty," Keo mumbled. "Enjoyable." The worst part was that this was no more than the truth.

Wilhelm stood. "If you don't mind, my lord, I will clear the leftovers away. For use in my work."

The Baron nodded. "Of course."

The weedy necromancer gathered the body up... Keo noticed with disgust how his hands caressed her breasts and crotch... before lifting the body in his arms, and with a slight bow carried it off.

The Baron announced, "And now, let me show you to your chambers. I know you cannot take true rest here, but Lucreze tells me there is a sort which can be done on unholy ground which has some of the effect."

"That is so," the Countess replied. "Do lead on."

With an armoured clatter, the Death Knight stood, and led them out of the hall.

---

They were each given rooms in the central tower, dusty chambers with mildewed lace and big canopied beds. In the center of each was a wooden coffin, and after a few pleasantries, Stepan and Lucreze left them.

Keo watched quietly as her master unpacked several boxes of earth from her luggage and filled the bottom of each coffin with them, then stood and rasped dark syllables over each. When it was done, they went to Keo's room and the Countess sat on the bed. "It was wonderful to finally sup together with you, my love. We must work on your etiquette, but you did make an effort to be courteous, which is better than I had feared. Just make sure you do not let our esteemed hostess snub you."

"Sooner we leave this damn abattoir the better," Keo replied resentfully. "These people are as foul as you."

"So cruel, little mouse." Amelie's tone was fond. "Now, undress, my dear one. Your bare flesh must touch the soil, and anyway the earth would ruin your fine clothes that you look so handsome and dashing in."

Flushing slightly - she had enough blood in her that she could blush quite well - Keo sullenly stripped. She was careful though to hang her clothing up so that it wouldn't get wrinkled or be trod upon; she had grown extremely taken with the garments and was starting to rethink her previous indifference to fashion. When she was naked, she looked at the elder vampire with dull anger. "Now what?"

"Lie down in the coffin, of course. Nestle into the soil of Ghasthauver."

With an unhappy sigh, Keo did so, lowering her round bottom and naked back on the waiting black soil. It felt surprisingly comfortable against her bare skin; cool and soothing, making her almost sleepy. She wriggled a bit, squirming down into it, letting her arms and legs burrow slightly into the soil. "Now what?" she said drowsily.

"Now, little mouse, sleep. Day comes, and you should conserve your energy. Tomorrow we shall socialize at length." With that, the Countess lifted the wooden lid and closed it, leaving Keo alone in the dark box.

Closing her eyes, Keo moodily tried to console herself. After all, she was getting to rest alone for the first time since she'd died, right? She could just stay in this comfortable box of dirt all day, endure whatever has planned for tomorrow, and eventually go home. Then she could go into Dylak-Leem and enjoy the city, maybe stop by the Wanton Wench for a drink. Not that she could drink anymore, but she could pretend to and enjoy being around living people.

A horrible yearning to see the sun and feel it warm her skin came over her, and she swallowed. At first she had dared to dream that there was some sort of cure for this, that she could give enough money to a powerful enough mage to restore her to life, or at least something closer to it. She no longer believed that to be possible. She would never regain what she had lost... the simple things she hadn't appreciated at the time, and now desperately longed for.

Moisture came to her eyes; tears welling up to her distress and anger. Keo wasn't a cryer. She was unsentimental, not given to shows of emotion aside from fury or disdain, and considered cold and hard even by the standards of the shady side of the Dylak-Leem streets. She couldn't remember the last time she'd wept outside of tears of pain or duress.

She sniffled for a bit, finally alone in her wooden box's dirt bed. After a while her thoughts grew hazy, and then, for the first time since she'd died, faded to nothing at all.

---

Keo awoke from torpor to the sound of somebody prying open the lid to her coffin. She snarled reflexively, fangs extending as her eyes opened. Her limbs, unfortunately, felt like lead weights.

The lid opened fully to reveal the dark-haired Lucreze dressed in her white thigh-slit revealing gown, gazing down at her. The older vampire smirked slightly. "Now, don't make that face. I've just come to wake you for dinner."

"Your husband treed another serf?" Keo rasped, fighting to clear her head. She felt like she had just woken up after a night of heavy boozing. Worse, her arms and legs seemed weak and slow. She continued to lie in the cool black earth of the box, fangs shinking back into her jaw, pulling herself together.

"Oh, not at all. A pity; I did so enjoy sharing that lovely meal." Lucreze gazed over the length of Keo's naked body. "Your first time out of your own bed?"

"Yes." Keo didn't feel much like discussing the matter.

"Well, you are very young, I gather. And not at all the sort of protege I would have expected from Countess D'Bastian. Someone more... aristocratic, I would have thought." The fallen nun's voice held a faint undertone of malice. "You have a bit of the air of the rook about you. Did you crawl out of the Dylak-Leem stews, 'Lady' Keo? A mugging or two, maybe the odd housebreaking?" Keo's face gave away her answer, and Lucreze laughed. "I thought so. Was the Countess slumming in your alley when you met?"

"Graverobbing, actually." With a grimace, Keo sat up in the box, dirt on her bare back falling in clumps. "Didn't go as planned."

"No, I expect not." The older vampire grasped Keo by one hand and helped her to stand unsteady in the coffin. She began to brush soil from Keo with one hand, slower on her buttocks and thighs. "Had to work a little harder than you expected for those buried jewels, ah? On your back, legs open?"

Keo bristled, doing her best to stay standing. "At least I didn't go looking for a vampire," she said mockingly. "Or naively believe the gods would save me and defeat my enemies. Did your master even have to bite you in order to stick it in you, or did you put out to him like a whore before he ate?" This time it was Lucreze's face that gave her away, and Keo's lip curled in a sneer. "I thought so."

The fallen nun's eyes blazed, and then she smiled and redoubled her brushing, giving Keo a slap on her broad ass that made the black-eyed thief grunt in startlement. "The problem with resting in soil is that it gets everywhere," Lucreze commented casually. "You'll be picking it out of that big rump for days. Or somebody will." She ran a cold finger down between Keo's asscheeks, making the smaller vampire's eyes widen angrily as her finger lingered on the rosebud of her anus.

"Don't need the help. Hands off." Keo slapped at her own arms and legs to clear as much of the soil off as she could, then attempted to step out of the coffin. As she did, however, Lucreze seized her by the upper arms, spun her stumblingly around, and then backed her up into one of the walls, pinning her.

"A proud little thing for gutter drab, freshly risen," the older vampire breathed, glowing eyes looking down into Keo's defiant ones. "You are a hundred and sixty years my junior, and on my ground. However mighty your master, and whatever honors she may have heaped upon you in her dementia, you will submit to the instruction of your betters. If only to avoid tracking dirt in the carpets." One pale hand moved down, fingers brushing through the black bush that covered Keo's mound. "You haven't even shaved. I'm sure there's a great deal of soil caught in there." The fallen nun's mouth quirked perversely, "I'm sure this area is... very dirty."

"Get your hands--"

Keo's shaking voice broke off in a gasp as Lucreze's fingers pinched her clit. The other vampire's face was growing closer to hers, eyes glowing red, and once again Keo felt the strange sense of kinship. Memories of dining with her last night and sharing the ripe round tits of the serf flooded in, and she found herself suddenly wet.

"That's it," Lucreze breathed, one finger sliding along Keo's moist, hairy slit. The fallen nun's lips brushed against Keo's as the thief stared, transfixed, into the two glowing red orbs. Then they kissed, hard, savagely, tongues entwining as Keo's crotch involuntarily pushed against the probing fingers, and Lucreze pressed her large breasts against Keo's naked chest.

Three seconds later Keo thrust Lucreze away, burning a small measure of blood. Vigor returned to her limbs.

Lucreze went stumbling backwards awkwardly, breasts jiggling beneath the revealing white gown. Then she landed with a squawk on her butt on the floor, her pale legs splayed.

Glowering, angry with herself and the older vampire and really with the entire world, Keo stalked naked across the room to the bed. Brushing herself off a few final times, she picked up her black and silver velvet riding costume from where it was neatly laid out on the covers and began to pull on the pants.

Lucreze sat and sullenly watched as Keo buckled her silver-clasped belt, standing topless with an arrogant slouch. "You almost look a man like that, you've so little up there."

Keo shrugged, not particularly caring. Instead she simply slid on the top and buttoned it, adjusting the lace ruff at the neck. When she was done and had slipped on her shoes, she glanced back at the other vampire. "So there's a dinner?"

"Yes." Lucreze stood, still eying Keo. "I must admit, nobody would ever call you beautiful, but you look very handsome in that outfit. The black and silver suits you."

"Uhh..." Keo blinked, not detecting any mockery in the woman's voice and at a bit of a loss. "Thank you."

"This way." Lucreze straightened her gown and slipped her arm inside the loop of Keo's own, and led the pair from the chamber.

The fallen nun pressed her large breast against Keo's arm, leaning against her as they walked to the great hall, making the thief flush uncomfortably. Keo wasn't sure what the older vampire was playing at, and her own thoughts on the matter were decidedly more in turmoil than she was used to.

When they arrived downstairs, they found the hall rather more busy than Keo had expected. Amelie was sitting in the chair she had occupied the night before, dressed in the same low-cut scarlet gown. The elder vampire seemed to frown at the sight of Keo entering with Lucreze on her arm, a faint touch of what Keo imagined to be possessive jealousy passing over her face. Baron Zagolya sat at the head of the table, again as before, but tonight dressed in a long-sleeved, high-necked doublet, hose, silk gloves, a hooded cloak, and a white porcelain tragedy mask hiding his face. Looking at him, there was no sign of his undead nature save for a certain aura of darkness that clung to him.

The likely reason for the masquerade was immediately apparent, because three strangers were sitting at the table as well, living people by the looks of them. At the Baron's left was a tall, voluptuous woman with long blonde hair, dressed in an expensive blue dress that had clearly seen hard traveling recently. Next to her was a brown-haired, rather ordinary looking young man in well-made, equally travel-stained garb of the sort she would expect from a reasonably prosperous merchant. And on the other side of the table, seated next to Amelie, was a pert young woman with short red hair, spectacles, and wearing the trousers and ink-stained blouse and vest of a university student.

"Ah, our final guests arrive," the Baron said pleasantly. "Do have a seat next to Mister Blackpool here."

With a curt nod, Keo detatched her arm from Lucreze, and walked around to sit next to the man. The fallen nun sat at the other end of the table, opposite her husband.

The Baron apologized, "I beg your patience; dinner shall be served momentarily."

"We're so glad," the blonde woman said in a rather throaty voice. "You have no idea how long it's been since we've had a decent meal in civilized company."

The brown-haired man turned to Keo. "You're a guest at Baron Zagolya's castle as well, then, my Lord..." He trailed off inquistively, waiting for a name.

Keo looked at him awkwardly, a little put out. "Keo," she said a trifle coldly.

The man's cheeks colored. "Ah... a thousand pardons, my lady. The light in here is poor, and your outfit..." He stumbled over his words, clearly embarrassed. "I am Kevin Blackpool, a gentleman of Castahar. Or I was. And this is my fiance, the Lady Chevonne."

"Charmed, I'm sure," the blonde woman said cheerfully.

"Delighted," Keo mumbled, embarrassed by his embarrassment. Truthfully she didn't particularly mind if people mistook her for a man or not, so long as she looked good. Just as sex had never held any appeal or interest for her, gender hadn't particularly mattered to her either; as far as she was concerned, there was little enough difference between men and women. "Yes. You're here on, ah, vacation."

"I wish I could say the same," Mr. Blackpool said ruefully. "I'm afraid we've had a terrible time, although we should count ourselves fortunate to have gotten to something resembling safety."

Yeah, right, Keo thought darkly. "You travelled from Castahar, then?" she inquired curiously.

"Yes. Just in time, too." Kevin Blackpool's pleasant face darkened. "We had so little warning. The drocken had already cut the city off by the time we tried to flee, and only a breakout attempt by the city garrison got anyone out alive. They chased us for weeks. We moved in small bands for a time, doing what we could to elude the savages. You could hear the screams when they found someone." He shuddered. "Chevonne and I decided the entire group would never make it south, so we broke off from them during the night and headed northeast, thinking we'd make for the passes and try to cross Subtersylvania to reach the Convent States. We met Miss Maire here on the way, and decided to travel together, as she had a map and some skill at cartography."

"Hello," the redheaded student said hesitantly. "Pleased to meet you, my lady." She pushed her spectacles up on her noise and gave Keo a nervous smile.

"So you decided to stop here?" Keo said unhappily.

"Yes. At first we mistook it for another ruin, but then we saw lights in the tower, and when we approached the gate the good Baron welcomed us." Blackpool dropped his voice. "I don't mean to be rude, but I can't help but inquire about... ah... the mask. Has his face been somehow disfigured?"

Keo hesitated for a moment. "Yes," she finally replied. "To the bone, actually."

"Oh my goodness," Maire quietly exclaimed across from her. "That poor man. Has he seen a powerful healer?"

"I... don't think there's anything a healer's going to be able to do for him," Keo muttered.

"That's a true shame," Blackpool said soberly. "I suppose that's part of why he lives in the middle of nowhere like this." He coughed. "I shouldn't have said that, I fear. Are you from the region, Lady Keo?"

"No. From Dylak-Leem." She shifted uncomfortably.

"Oh!" Maire said eagerly. "That's where I was planning to go!"

"Really?" Blackpool asked. "Do you know someone there?"

"I hope so." A shadow passed over Maire's face. "My sister and I agreed that if we were separated, we'd meet at the Registrar of the great University there... we could leave our names and lodgings for the other to find. We were both students at the Bethelian College in Castahar, some miles from the capitol, and while we'd heard there was fighting to the north nobody expected the speed with which everything collapsed. The college was burning as we fled. The goatmen attacked as we were crossing the river... there was a panic, a stampede, drocken everywhere. I saw terrible things." She shuddered. "One second Mairead was right beside me, the next she was gone, and staying to find her was... not possible. Not with the goatmen raping and slaughtering just twenty feet away. I ran as fast as I could and hoped she did the same."

"Sorry to hear," Keo said.

Blackpool nodded; he'd clearly heard the story before, if not the Dylak-Leem connection.

Maire stared at the table, "She's smart and careful. I'm sure she's okay. Probably she's heading south for the Mosspike Gate." Then she smiled bravely at Keo. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drag down the conversation. We're all just glad to be under a safe roof again after so long roughing it."

"Gods, yes," Chevonne interjected. "We have been tramping through hill, bog, and fen for the last few weeks eating decidedly unappetizing fare when we had anything at all. I was half expecting for a band of goatmen to have me on my back with my legs apart before we got within sight of the border." She laughed. "They were busy with the slower ones, I suppose."

"Do you know if there's been any organized efforts against them?" Blackpool asked Keo. "Are the coastal cities taking any steps?"

"Yeah. Crusade's been organized by the temples and merchants." Keo shrugged. "Heard they made alliance with Darharrow."

"What about Ergalreik?" Maire asked. "Have they joined?"

"Ergalreik's fallen," Keo replied bluntly. "Drocken went through Castahar like shit through a goose and kept going. I hear Darharrow and the Crusade are holding them on the border. Mostly. There's been some villages burned, and from what I hear the Drocken carried off Darharrow's Queen and gang-fucked her til they'd planted a baby in her."

"Gods!" Maire said, shaken. "I thought it was just Castahar. Do... do you think Dylak-Leem is safe?"

Keo shrugged. "Hells if I know," she replied. "Not a general or a ruler. Don't know much about war. Don't like how things are looking, though. Hopefully this Crusade is up to the job."

Chevonne turned to the host. "What about you, dear Baron? Are you concerned about the goatmen? This keep isn't far from the Castahari border."

"Not particularly." The Baron's hollow voice was tinged with dark amusement. "If the brutes are foolish enough to come, it will merely provide my wife and I with entertainment."

"Hopefully not the sort of entertainment they gave Darharrow's Queen," Chevonne replied with a smile.

Amelie glanced at her with mingled amusement and disapproval.

Maire flinched. 

Blackpool just looked faintly embarrassed. "She gets this way at times," he whispered awkwardly to Keo. "It's been a long road."

"Mm," Keo replied neutrally. Blackpool and Maire seemed decent enough despite being gentry and a university student respectively, two groups of people she usually resented. Chevonne by contrast she was disliking more and more with every passing second. Seeking to switch the topic, she turned back to Maire. "So. A student? Anything useful?"

Maire pushed her spectacles up on her nose. "I suppose it depends on how you define useful. My area of study was the great surface invasions by the underground empires of the last milleniums."

"Never heard of them," Keo replied.

"I have," Amelie said, eying the redheaded student with more interest.

"Oh, they're quite significant in the story of your home," Maire told Keo eagerly, warming to her subject. "Dylak-Leem and most of the Whore Coast were tributaries of them, perhaps even founded by them. I'm told there's still remains of their edifices standing in the Foreign Quarter; I'd dearly love to see them."

"Strange things in the Foreign Quarter," Keo mumbled. "Suppose it doesn't surprise me."

The Countess noted, "I believe the University has a large collection of texts that date back to that era. Most, alas, in the restricted stacks."

"When I get there, I'll have to make inquiries," Maire said wistfully. "My sister and I always dreamed of making the trip. Not like this, though."

Blackpool added sympathetically. "I can imagine. I admire your dedication to learning. I'm afraid I have very little experience with any form of knowledge, aside from accounting."

Keo asked, perhaps slightly more snappishly than intended, "Do your own numbers on your estates, then?"

Blackpool blinked. "Oh, not at all." He gave an embarrassed chuckle. "Maybe I gave the impression that I'm grander than I am. My fiancee's the one with the bloodline; I'm of respectable birth, but I don't have an estate or anything, just a rather nice apartment. Or I did. I was a junior partner with Dagwall and Sons Coster, the one in charge of doing the books." A weak smile. "I'm afraid I'm rather common next to you and the Countess here. I expect you've a mansion or three in Dylak-Leem."

Keo looked at him blankly, then shrugged. "Something like that."

A bell sounded, and the Baron rapped once on the table to get attention. "From the sound of things, dinner shall be served presently," he intoned. "I am sure you are all very hungry after your ordeal, and I apologize for making you wait so long for the feast to begin."

Keo's stomach clenched, and she glanced first to Amelie, then to Lucreze. Both of them bore expressions of lazy amusement. Her own face changed into an unhappy mask. The previous night had been bad enough, but she'd just carried on a conversation with these people. She desperately wished she were somewhere, anywhere else.

The doors to the hall opened, and Wilhelm wheeled in a cart laden with a large covered platter, which he carefully lifted, revealing three plates laden with meat, gravy, cooked potatoes, and vegetables. With a flourish, the necromancer set each plate before one of the living guests, then hefted a dusty bottle of wine and filled their goblets.

"Well!" Chevonne said, peering at the bottle. "You have a fine cellar, my dear Baron, and you've very generous with it."

"After your ordeal, only the best," Baron Zagolya said grandly. "And I rarely indulge in wine these days, so I am free to spoil my guests with it."

Maire ravenously attacked her meat with knife and fork. "This is the first decent meal I've had in over a month," she managed through a full mouth. "Wonderful."

"It is good," Blackpool agreed, eating more slowly but still with enjoyment. Then he frowned. "None of the rest of you are having dinner?"

"Why no, Mister Blackpool," Lucreze replied sweetly. "You see, the rest of us have already eaten, and are still quite full."

"Oh," Maire said, swallowing a big mouthful and spearing another piece of meat. "I hope we haven't put you to a great deal of trouble, cooking a second meal for us."

"Not at all," Lucreze replied, grinning. "You see, these are just leftovers from our prior feast that Wilhelm has kindly prepared for you."

It took also a full second for Keo to understand, and then she made a faint choking noise.

Blackpool turned to her. "Bless you," he said around a mouthful of flesh. "Bit of spice make you sneeze?"

"Ah." Keo stared at the plate with horror. "Ahh. Maybe."

Lucreze explained gleefully, "I'm afraid Lady Keo and I took all the breast meat, but there was still a fair bit of rump and juicy thigh and flank left. I hope it meets with your liking."

"It's delicious," Maire replied, gobbling it down with a certain lack of manners.

Blackpool and Chevonne ate more slowly but still with enjoyment, the blonde frequently sipping her wine.

Swallowing, Keo stared at the table. She supposed this was better than slaughtering the three of them, but it still made her feel a little sick.

The remainder of the dinner was a slow affair. All three guests cleaned their plates, and then fell to talking. Maire eagerly rambled on about her studies, things which only Amelie seemed much interested in. Blackpool made idle, somewhat awkward conversation with Keo; she got the distinct impression that he realized something was the matter with her but hadn't the slightest idea what. Chevonne chattered wildly and somewhat extravagantly with Stepan Zagolya, at times actually flirting with him to a degree far beyond what Keo would consider decent behavior, especially given her fiancee and his wife were sitting right there at the table. Judging by Blackpool's expressions of discomfort, he agreed with Keo.

Eventually though, the dishes were taken away. "And now night comes," the Baron said. "I shall show our new guests to their rooms. Countess D'Bastian, Lady Keo, you of course already know where your quarters are. Should you require anything, my dear wife shall be pleased to see to your needs."

"Of course, my dear Baron," Amelie said pleasantly. "Good night, Miss Maire. I am glad you had the chance to pass on your knowledge to me; it was most stimulating."

"Oh, thank you for listening, Countess D'Bastian," Maire said, clapping her hands together in pleasure. "I'm afraid I just bore most people when I ramble on." The young redhead laughed a little awkwardly, adjusting her spectacles. "You've been very kind."

"Not at all," Amelie murmured, rising and sweeping past. "Come, my dear Keo, let us retire for the evening."

"Yes," Keo said tonelessly. She rose.

"It was very nice to meet you, my lady," Blackpool told her, apparently sincere. "We'll probably be leaving in the morning, but perhaps I'll see you again at breakfast."

"Could be," she muttered, then hastily followed after her master.

Continued in Chapter 15

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