It was on the third day of her captivity that the first stirrings of fear began to worm their way into Tessa Ebonlock’s heart, an emotion so contrary to the vampire’s nature that it took her a moment to register what it even was. It was a feeling she thought she’d left behind with her mortality, one barely experienced over the course of nearly four hundred years, and the idea that she could even feel fear in the first place only deepened her growing sense of unease, the silence of her prison broken by the nervous moan escaping her gag. It was a product of her deprivation, that was the only thing that made sense. Not a drop of blood had passed her crimson lips since this ordeal began, and the thirst was starting to get to her. Yes, that was the most likely explanation. The safest too.

Safer than the notion there was still some human frailty she’d yet to fully expunge.

Safer than the notion she was weak.

Fury kindled at the vampire’s breast, and she took up the struggle once more, her eponymous dark locks flying about her as she writhed in her bondage. At first glance, one might easily take her for an ordinary, nineteen-year-old woman, albeit a very beautiful one, her curvy figure flattered by a shirt of ruffled scarlet silk, tight-fitting black leather corset, and matching black leather pants and wedge-heeled boots. At closer inspection, however, her inhumanly pale skin, like carved alabaster, hinted at her supernatural existence, as did eyes of burning amber unlike anything possessed by the human cattle. She’d awoken from her unwilling slumber bound spread-eagle to a stone slab by an array of leather straps, holding her arms fast at the wrists and biceps, her long legs at the ankles and thighs, with further straps around her waist, beneath her generous breasts and around her throat ensuring she would remain in place. It was futile; whoever had kidnapped her had been wise enough to take the vampire’s superior strength into account, and none showed the slightest sign of budging after three days of near-constant struggle. Hands capable of tearing a man’s throat out with minimal effort were rendered useless by the presence of leather bondage mittens, depriving her of any hope of plucking away at the buckles, while the muzzle gag obscuring the lower half of her face both stifled her cries and rendered her predator’s fangs safe behind rigid leather.

That wasn’t the only precaution her captor had taken either. Walls of black granite surrounded her, the smooth, polished stone unbroken by any windows that could let the light of the accursed sun, while the single entrance was secured by a steel door, locked and barred. In other circumstances, the chamber that served as her prison would have been an ideal place of safety during daytime; indeed, it was far more secure than the abandoned warehouse she’d been using as a temporary hideout for the past few weeks. Between the room, her bondage, and the dart loaded with a drug powerful enough to knock out a vampire, whoever had captured her knew what they were doing, and once again, fear intruded upon Tessa’s thoughts, unwelcome and unsettling. The older a vampire became, the longer they could go without having to drink blood, yet to be deprived for three days was certainly pushing it. Is this what they intend for me? To leave me here, bound and gagged, and let the thirst drive me mad? Unlike many vampires, Tessa preferred a truly solitary existence, unburdened by swains and servants to attend to her needs… which meant that no one was coming to save her, or even knew she’d been taken. By my sire, when I find out who’s done this to me—

Then came the screech of metal against metal as the bars securing the door were withdrawn, and the door flung open, revealing an intimately familiar face and drawing a haze of crimson over Tessa’s vision. “Why, my dear Tessa, you haven’t aged a day.”

A growl like a cornered beast escaped past Tessa’s muzzle, and she flinched at the touch of a gloved hand possessively stroking her forehead. “Over a century I’ve waited to see you like this, and it was well-worth it,” Gloria Sanguinalia crooned, gleaming incisors of her own flashing in her full mouth. “Tessa Ebonlock, so proud, so beautiful… so pathetic. Did you honestly think I’d forget what you did to me, lover? How you betrayed me?”

“Mmmppggghhh!” Tessa shouted defiantly, amber eyes staring daggers at her old flame. It was rare for two vampires to cooperate for any length of time. Apex predators did not like to share their prey, after all, and even the bond between sire and sired would eventually crumble. Gloria had been different though. They’d met at Fuentes de Oñoro, lured to the blood-soaked village like carrion crows by the prospect of gorging upon the dying soldiers of both sides. For the next century, they were close companions, travelling the world together, sharing victims and hideouts and eventually their bed, until one day they came to blows over a particularly plump patch of the Western Front. Gloria was still as Tessa remembered her, beautiful and arrogant in equal measure, her willowy figure highlighted by a close-fitting dress of blue silk, while hair of pale gold cascaded unbound down to the small of her back, and lust and revulsion warred inside the dark-haired vampire as her captor’s hands fell upon her most intimate areas. “Mmmpgghh, mmpppgghhh!”

“Don’t play the innocent with me, Tessa, we both know how much you’re enjoying this,” Gloria said mockingly, tracing her shapely legs. “Are your new accommodations to your liking? I hope so, because you’re going to stay here safe and snug for as long as I wish.”

“Mmmppgghh!” In that instant, Tessa felt the first true symptoms of blood deprivation begin to take hold, her vision blurring, her limbs trembling, and the aching hunger in the gut deepening tenfold, stoking the flame of her fear all the higher and sending her thrashing against her bonds in sheer animal panic. “Mmmpppgghhh!”

“Feeling thirsty, are we? It seems like a fitting punishment for your greed. Perhaps I’ll seal up this chamber and leave you walled in alive. You nearly did the same to me, after all.”

“MMMPPGGGHHH!”

Sneering, Gloria leaned in close, lips brushing Tessa’s right ear. “But that would be a waste. You belong to me, Tessa, now and always. Submit to me, and all this will end. You’ll be safe, you’ll have all the blood you could wish… and you’ll be my pet, like you always should have been. What do you say? You’ll be deprived of nothing!”

Except for her pride, and the freedom to live and hunt where and when she chose. Tessa let silence serve as her answer, and was immediately rewarded by the flare of anger in her captor’s eyes. “Stubborn bitch!” spat Gloria, whirling back towards the cell door in a rage. “You’ll regret ever spurning me, Tessa! Let’s see how defiant you are after another week. You’ll beg for a rat’s blood to sup before I’m done with you!”

The metal door slammed shut with a thunderous crash, and Tessa was left alone again, with nothing but her thoughts and the hunger for company. If that bitch thinks this will be the end of me, she’s very much mistaken! Once I’m safe and out of this, I’m going to make her pay…