She's a bloody fool

Everything felt heavy and there was a pungent strong smell in the air. It burned her nostrils like smelling salts but no matter what she couldn’t find the energy to wake up let alone open her eyes or move away from the smell.

Something cool touched her forehead, it felt like water. It felt really nice against her skin. As her mind woke up even more she tried to get a sense of her body, of her limbs and where she was. She wiggled her toes. At least that meant she wasn’t totally paralyzed. She tried to wiggle her fingers and it took effort to do so. Her body didn’t want to move, it didn’t want to respond.

Someone was talking but she couldn’t make out the voice. It was like her ears were full of water. She tried taking a deeper breath and pain shot all across her chest. Even with the pain her body didn’t jerk around.

Suddenly one of her eyes was opened and a light was shone in it. The light was bright and it made her eye water.

“Well hello Miss Griffen…welcome back” said Katia as she leaned back after checking her pupil reaction.

With a watery eye she managed to blink a few times to clear her vision. Things were coming into hazy view. There was a woman sitting near her, wearing a pretty sort of summery dress. There were men walking around… shirtless men… really handsome men walking about like they owned the place.


“I…think I had a nightmare about this once” she said, except her voice sounded dry and hoarse. Katia seemed to smile at the comment before she turned her head to one of the shirtless vampires.

“Naos…find Sire, he wanted to know when she woke”

Naos, an honest to goodness ancient greek solder and vampire inclined his head in a very respectful manner before he was gone in a flash.

Katia turned her head and began to clean up the rest of Kiara’s wounds.

Kiara tried to open her other eye but somehow she couldn’t. But as consciousness came more to her mind she realized there were a lot of things she couldn’t do. She couldn’t move her knees at all, like someone had replaced them with solid concrete. Every breath brought sharp pains to her, like needles being stabbed constantly. She finally realized that one side of her face was totally numb, from jaw to forehead.

Naos approached William in silence. William had found himself a room filled with books which had been a surprise in the home of a wolf. Books of everything from mythology to medicine, classic literature, nature and animals to a surprising collection of children’s books. Every room in his house was a window into Kiara’s personality and it was both confusing and fascinating. One room would be typically feminine, but then another room was a training room fit for the fiercest fighters. One room would celebrate life, yet another made an ode to death with it being filled to the brim with synthetic blood for vampires.

Currently he was devouring a book by Edgar Allan Poe. The motif seemed apropos for everything that was happening.

“Dominus… she is awake” said Naos in a respectful tone.



William lifted his gaze from the book. Naos, even after all these centuries had never gotten around to calling William “sire” like the rest of his vampires. William had taken in the vampire after the raids in rome where irresponsible vampires were turning greek and roman gladiators in a bid to create the strongest vampires. What was left was a hoard of hungry, untrained vampires who pillaged and killed. William and his Maker had taken in Naos and trained him and Naos had accepted William as his “Dominus” meaning lord and master in olden times and the moniker had stuck.

William set the book aside and walked with Naos back to the large den turned pseudo hospital room. There was Katia, doing her job in tending the wolf. He had vampires patrolling her grounds and other vampires around the house ensuring the integrity of the safety mechanisms.

“Well good evening Miss Griffen, so glad you decided to join us” said William with a grin.

The woman who had been tending to her had given her some water and propped her up so she wasn’t lying down completely. At least now she could sort of see better where she was. She was clearly in her home, she recognized all her furniture. What she didn’t recognize was the woman beside her, or any of the men who seemed quite at home in her house.

Suddenly someone was there in front of her. A man. She recognized the voice before the face seeing as he was the only british man who called her Miss Griffen.

“William?” she asked in a haze of pain.

William watched as the gears of her mind turned. She was still not even remotely recovered. But considering the state they had found her in it was a vast improvement.

“I prefer ‘Your Majesty’ but yes it is I” he said at her question. He gave Naos a look and the greek vampire was gone in an instant. That action made the other vampires who had been lurking around also vacate the premises and go outside, leaving only William and Katia.

Kiara couldn’t understand why her chess playmate was here, in her home of all places. Bill would never allow other vampires into his state…unless…

“what…happened?” she asked, her mind now whirling in her mind and the fact that Bill would blame at least half if not all of it on her.

Katia leaned forward, as if sensing her unrest and tried to calm her down.

“We don’t know exactly what happened to you, but you were hurt in a bad way. You’ve been out for days now. We’ve given you several units of blood to bring you back” she said as she placed a cold compress on the numb side of her face.

William inclined her head as he took a few steps forward. “It seems a vampire attempted to turn you and failed miserably… we found you practically dead and Katia here has been nursing you back” he said calmly.

Kiara tried to wrap her mind around what was being said. It at least explained why she felt like someone had put her through a wood chipper then hastily put the pieces back together. But that still didn’t explain why the vampire King of the British Isles was here, in Louisiana tending to a wolf he barely knew.

“w-wheres…Bill?” she asked, afraid that she’d been gone so long Bill probably assumed she’d left him willingly.

William rolled his eyes. How Compton had brainwashed this woman into being so loyal to him he would never know. Instead he answered her question.

“He is safe in his mansion. My servants tell me he is being comforted by another woman” he said, looking to gauge her reaction to the news.

Kiara blinked. Another woman? It must be Judith. So she managed a half smile considering the numb side of her face. So Bill wasn’t alone during this time. That made her feel better that at least he had someone by his side when he needed it the most. All she had to worry about was his anger when he found out that there were other vampires in the state and that she hadn’t called him yet.

“I….I need to call him…” she said weakly, trying to lift her hand for a phone that wasn’t there.

William shook his head. “Out of the question. You’ve just woken up after days of being basically dead. We don’t need Compton here mucking things up” he said as Katia readjusted the IV lines.

William paced a bit back and forth. “Compton has his incompetent guards looking for you. They have yet to even think of looking in the obvious places. Instead they run around like chickens without heads… all while Compton remains a recluse in his home” he said as he shook his head, placing his hands behind his back.

“He is quite an incompetent king… letting Isabel rattle his cage… he should have killed her the moment she declared war”

Kiara felt a million time better. It took some constant reminding on her end that William had brought a whole hoard of vampires with him. He claimed they were all for security purposed but she had to wonder if he was trying to test her with other men.
At least Katia the vampire seemed nice enough. She knew a lot about medicine and helped her get showered and cleaned up. Despite being a vampire she even knew what to recommend for a diet that wouldn’t cause her so much discomfort. She also spent most of the time explaining in gruesome detail what state Kiara had been found. Kiara had little memory of it. All she could really remember was a bright white room and a name…’Raphael’

Walking was really a chore. She’d learned that her knees had been vivisected and Katia had done her best to reconstruct the tissue without using vampire blood. Katia and King William had tried to convince her to drink vampire blood but she had refused. She didn’t want that rush of anger and power, not to mention the unwanted fantasies that came from the blood. She insisted that she would eventually heal.

So now, dressed in a simple loose robe that allowed Katia access to re-dress her bandages and now sitting on her plush recliner she was now going through one of her planners, a book where she kept all pertinent information which included places she used to get grocery deliveries even late at night. As much as she would love to tear into some ribs and a greasy burger and fries Katia insisted she eat something light, like soup or rice and lots of liquids.

William had commandeered the book room to speak to his vampires. It was just pass midnight and he’d sent two vampires to do recon on Compton’s mansion and other vampires to do another sweep of the Griffen property.

“Antonio, Colin…. Continue to sweep the perimeter. Anubis airlines is scheduled to bring some travel coffins but if they do not arrive be prepared to sleep underground” he said casually.



Antonio a vampire of Spanish descent inclined his head. With his naturally dark complexion he blended in quite well in the darkness. Not to mention he was used to the security work. He often was the one who had to wake up the guards of Buckingham palace when they fell asleep in the middle of the night.



Colin, the irish vamp however was not pleased to be made to do manual labor. Colin was used to being William’s night pet, spending his nights drinking from veins and fucking. He didn’t enjoy being away from William, let alone having to patrol. “If I must…” he said in a bored tone, casually exposing his neck to William, making it very clear what he would rather be doing.

William rolled his eyes. He’d overly spoiled Colin due to his beauty, he had to remind the vampire that he had duties to attend to. “Go… I will summon you with more orders if needed” he said in a firm tone. Antonio and Colin were gone, leaving Katia with Alastair and Dion.

“Katia… how goes the menu?” asked William.

Katia inclined her head. “Miss Griffen is currently procuring food, I’ve told her to stick to a diet to heal better. She is still refusing any vampire blood” she said with a sad tone.

William nodded. “Dion, what about the blood stores?” he asked.



Dion, a Swedish vampire and about the same height as William spoke, his English only dotted with a bit of his accent.
“At the rate we’re consuming we’ll be able to remain here at least a month. Miss Griffen’s blood room has plenty of good synthetic stock as well as several of her blood products like those Chimera crystals” he said with an incline of his head.

Alastair, the vampire from Scotland and the man who felt kilts were for all occasions, including now rolled his eyes.
“Aye, why aren’t we just buyin’ up the true blood that governo’ provided before?” he asked, his voice thick with his native accent.


William shook his head. “Out of the question. If the rumors around the true blood circuit are true the blood in his state is contaminated with something like Hep D. Besides… these american’s can’t brew a good glass of blood to save themselves” he said with arms crossed. Alastair shrugged, not caring either way. He was the rebel of the group, always mouthing off to William but never really meaning anything, he knew better than to cross his maker.

“Katia, go stay with Griffen, make sure she eats something and DOES NOT phone Compton. Dion bring up some more blood from the basement and warm it up. Alastair… bloody hell can’t you wear pants like normal vampires?” said William, this being a very normal argument.

Alastair smirked. “I like a healthy breeze ‘round ma privates Sire… we can’t all be Dion with his leather” he said, motioning to the Swedish vampire.

Dion shrugged and left to go fetch the blood. Katia excused herself to go back to Kiara.

William sighed. “Fine…just stop flashing your cock everywhere… no one wants to see that” he said. Alastair rolled his eyes and walked off.

Just then William’s phone rang. He looked at his cell phone and saw who was calling.

“Charlie…what have you discovered?”

Charlie, who had gone with Crispin to spy on the Compton mansion to gather any pertinent information was now reporting. Both vampires were floating in the air, far from the Compton mansion so they wouldn’t be found.

“Sir… well the guards run around like drunk ants. Something has happened however as there was commotion inside the mansion. Someone is dead sir, like the true death” he said. Crispin leaned in forward to speak into the phone.
“Sire… it looks like Compton has secluded himself in the mansion. And your suspicions were true. Isabel is on the move. She is in the state. Her financials are a mess… she is quite broke. It also looks like the Queen of France has cut off her support to Isabel”

William shrugged. The Queen of France was an idiot. She preferred the frilly things, she didn’t have a mind for queendom.

“Very well… watch the guard patterns and come back in an hour. Crispin find a change of clothes as I will have you delivering a letter before the night is over”