When they arrived back at the house Fulton had taken her upstairs to his room and she proved that feeding wasn't the only activity she did in a frenzy. After a long and loud session that should go some way to paying Francesca and Gabriella back for all the times he had had to endure listening to them at it, Fulton rolled onto his side and regarded the girl. He absentmindedly stroked his hand up and down her side.
"You know I don't even know your name?" he said.
The girl looked at him with wide eyes then broke eye contact by watching his hand. "What I was called doesn't matter anymore," she said, "I've spent a lot of time thinking about this and I've chosen a new name for the new person I am."
She trailed off but brought her eyes back up to his.
"Go on," he instructed her. "Tell me."
"I want to be called Persephone."
"It's a pretty name," Fulton said not really sure what made any one name prettier than others, it just seemed like the polite thing to say.
"She was the Greek Goddess of the underworld."
"Appropriate as well then."
"That's what I thought," Persephone said, "But there is one problem with it," the girl screwed up her face and hesitated for a second before she continued. "She was also the Goddess of corn."
Fulton laughed and Persephone drew away from him.
"I'm not laughing at you," he soothed her hooking his arm over her body to draw her back in. "But if anyone asks we can ignore the corn link." He laughed again, "Those Greeks had a deity for everything."
For a time Francesca and Gabriella had attempted to rival Fulton and his little whore with how much noise they could make when they were making love. Despite hundreds of years of practice they eventually had to give up and admit defeat as the younger vampires' lust outstripped them.
"For now it is new and exciting for them, it will soon become routine and they will settle down," Francesca said putting her arms through a pale dressing-gown and tying the belt around her waist.
"Is that how it is for you with me," Gabriella asked rolling over to wrap the bed sheets around her, "Routine?"
"Would I still be with you if it was?"
Gabriella sat up keeping the sheets around her. "That isn't an answer. But even so you could just have got stuck in a rut and I'm here with you so it's convenient to keep me around."
Francesca walked back towards her and sat at the foot of the bed. "You know that isn't true." She reached out as though to run her fingers through Gabriella's hair but the other vampire leaned out of her reach.
"It would explain why I'm never enough for you," she said quietly.
Francesca stood and stalked over to the door. "Once upon a time this jealousy of yours was cute, now it has become an annoyance. Get over it."
She stormed through the door and slammed it behind herself.
Gabriella shifted position to make herself more comfortable. How could Francesca say that to her? She wasn't jealous so it wasn't possible for her to be acting that way. And even if she was jealous it wouldn't be her fault it would be Francesca's. She was the one who had given her something to be jealous of. Gabriella thought that maybe Francesca was the one who was jealous of Fulton's new plaything and that was why she had overreacted.
In Fulton's room they started at it again. They had been going at it all day but they gave no indication that they were ready to start taking it any slower. Gabriella tried to ignore the noise and wriggled her body to try and find a more comfortable position. She couldn't seem to get comfortable and struggled against the sheets she had twined around herself. With a grunt of frustration she stretched her arms out through the sheets tearing the material. Even more annoyed now she threw the ragged sheet to the floor and climbed off the bed. She kicked her feet furiously when they tangled in the remains of the sheets. With a final kick she sent the material to the other side of the room.
Fulton and his pet whore were still at it, the noise hadn't abated all day, and Gabriella couldn't take it anymore. Dusk had fallen and Francesca was in the bathroom getting ready to go out for a hunt. Gabriella was in no mood for any company tonight so she quickly got dressed in casual clothes and rushed out of the house.
The sun had only recently set and the world still glowed with its residual light. It wasn't bright enough to make her uncomfortable but it did remind her of those times when she could go out in full sunlight without fear. She remembered the village where she grew up. Carefree days spent playing in the fields or, when she was older, watching the young farm hands getting sweaty under the sun showing off to her and her friends. She remembered that those things had happened but she could no longer see them. Her memories had faded so much over time that now that she tried she was unable to even call up images of her own parents. She had vague impressions of them but when she tried to bring any into focus they proved elusive. It seemed she could recall with perfect clarity the time surrounding her transformation into a vampire and every day since, but looking further in the past than that was like trying to see through treacle. Maybe that was for the best, it was largely thoughts of his human life that had caused Fulton to struggle so much with being a vampire.
Gabriella focused her mind on where she was now. That was the past, it didn't matter if it faded that was what it was supposed to do. What mattered was the present and the future.
It was still only early and naive parents let their children play unattended on the streets. Even in these times where supernatural evil had been relegated to teen-horror shows on T.V there was enough evil people did believe in, normal human evil brought home to people on the television and in newspapers, that Gabriella would have expected parents to be more careful.
Not that she was complaining.
A young lad, no more than eight years old, bounced a scuffed football in front of him as he walked along the pavement. The ball hit the edge of a cracked paving slab and bounced awkwardly so he missed the catch and had to run off after it. The ball came bouncing past Gabriella and she swooped down plucking it out of the air to present to the lad. He stood in front of her looking down at his feet. He bounced his weight from one foot to the other.
"Here." Gabriella extended her arms further almost touching him with the ball.
"I'm not s'posed to talk to strangers," he mumbled.
Gabriella bobbed down so she was sat with her buttocks touching her heels so that she was on the young boy’s level. She put the ball on the floor and rested her hands on top of it to keep her balance.
"I bet that's only for strange men."
The boy shook his head, "All grown-ups."
Gabriella cracked a smile, "That's all right then," she said. "Because I'm not a grown-up."
She touched a finger under the boys chin and lifted his head up so that he could look at her. "I bet you've seen girls at big school that are my age, haven't you?" At least the age she looked.
The boy nodded looking slightly less uncomfortable, "Yes."
"Well I can't be a grown-up if I'm still at school so it must be all right to talk to me."
The boy pondered that for a moment then his face brightened, "Okay."
Gabriella rolled him the ball and stood up, "Are you on your way home?"
"I live on Orchard Street," he nodded.
"That's where I'm going but I don't know where it is," Gabriella lied. "Can you walk me to Orchard Street?"
The boy nodded again and passed the football to one hand, with the other he reached up to take hold of her hand. "This way."
Gabriella let him lead her down a few different streets. She had no idea where Orchard street was, and she didn't want to risk arriving there before she had a chance to feed, but she couldn't feed until they were away from the people that seemed to be everywhere at the moment. Eventually they turned into a back alley between two streets.
"This is a shortcut. Mummy says I can't come this way when it's dark and I'm on my own but you're with me so it's all right," the boy said.
"Yes it is."
She woul
d do it when they were halfway through. That way they would be the farthest distance from either end of the alley and any possible witnesses. She watched the boy skipping along ahead of her and walked fast to keep the distance between them down to only a few short paces so that when the time came she would be able to catch him quickly. The lack of streetlights along the length of the alley would also aid her. Although it wasn't fully dark yet it would be the darkest at the halfway point away from the lights standing at either end.
Gabriella realised she had let the distance between herself and the child extend to several metres when he turned round, having just passed the halfway point, to tell her to keep up.
"I'm only s'posed to come this way when I'm with someone else, so you gotta keep up or I'll be in trouble."
"I'm coming," Gabriella said.
She hadn't realised she had let the child get so far ahead of her but he was in the ideal position to be taken now. She kept her vampiric visage hidden beneath the mask of her humanity for the time being. She needed to take him quietly so she couldn't let him scream the neighbourhood down.
The child extended his free hand towards her again. She took it and he turned away to continue leading her. Gabriella remained where she was and the child came to an abrupt halt his hand gripped securely in hers. She could feel his pulse, his blood pumping through his stubby little fingers. She could almost taste it. Could almost feel how the warm fluid would drain from his body, transferring his life-force to her as he died.
He turned back to look at her and she was sure he knew what he was thinking. His face blanched as the blood left it.
"Come on, I want to go home."
Home. A place Gabriella had forgotten. A place she had made with Francesca in the present that she could feel crumbing away. A place she tried to see herself in the future but that couldn't exist. A place where this child had parents, people who loved him and a future waiting. Things she could grant him or deny him in this moment of choice.
Gabriella understood what appalled Fulton about her taking prey so young. She looked down at the child and tried to speak. She couldn't find the words and had to swallow before she could force any out.
"Let's get you home then."
The child didn't move. He stared up at her face and Gabriella worried that she had transformed without noticing. She brought her free hand up to her mouth but it was normal. She moved it up to her eyes where the boy was staring and it came away wet with her tears. She stared herself for a long moment at the beads of moisture that glistened back at her in the twilight.
"Something in my eye."
Gabriella had delivered the boy safely home. Watching him to his door where he turned and gave her a wave. She had returned the gesture and had remained watching his house until true darkness had fallen. Then she had wandered the streets, staying away from people as much as possible. She wasn't worried about giving in to her urges to kill, she was a vampire that was what she did, and the only thing she could do was choose who to kill not whether to kill or not. She was worried because she had let the boy live because Fulton would have wanted her to. She had tried to convince herself that the thing she had felt that night on the run from the police had just been something felt in the heat of the moment. That was why she had tried to fill her time with Francesca and nothing else. Why she tried to keep herself away from Fulton. But her whole way of thinking, her whole approach to life had changed in the time she had known him, because of him.
And now he had gone and added another complication to matters by turning that girl and bringing her to live with them. It had been difficult enough for her to work things out before, now it would be all but impossible.
She wandered the streets, not really paying any sort of attention to her direction. She just kept on walking, absorbed more in her head and her thoughts than in the real world around her.
Gabriella sniffed the air and realised that it was almost dawn. The sky had brightened and the murderous sun threatened to rise over the horizon at any moment. Luckily she was close to home or else she would have been forced to seek shelter elsewhere for the day.
Chapter Thirty-three
She walked in the door just starting to feel the itch of exposure to sunlight and felt immediate relief when she shut the door, and the light, out.
There were voices in the living room and a high girlish giggle that Francesca would never have uttered. Gabriella walked inside to find Fulton seated on the settee with the girl draped across him. Fulton was pouring slowly congealing blood into her mouth from a wine glass. He tried to straighten when he noticed Gabriella but the girl wouldn't let him.
He shrugged and continued pouring. When the girl had a mouthful of blood he turned back to Gabriella.
"Gabriella, this is Persephone. Persephone, meet Gabriella."
The two women exchanged curt greetings and then Francesca rushed into the room.
"Where have you been? I-" she cut herself off, thinking better about whatever she had been about to say. "I was worried about you."
Gabriella didn't say anything and only returned the hug after Francesca wrapped her in her arms.
Francesca said their goodbyes to Fulton and Persephone and led Gabriella upstairs to their room. When they were inside and the door closed behind them, Francesca engulfed her in another embrace. This time she lowered her face and the pair exchanged a passionate kiss.
"You thought I might have left you," Gabriella said after their lips parted, it wasn't a question.
Francesca shook her head. "I know you better than that. I knew you were just teaching me a lesson."
Gabriella said nothing. It would hurt Francesca to know that she hadn't been the focus of Gabriella's thoughts throughout the night. But when she was here with her hurting Francesca was the last thing she ever wanted to do.
In the end it was Francesca who changed the subject for her.
"I am worried about Fulton," she said. "He has always had difficulty accepting himself for what he is. The episode with his parents proves he has difficulty letting go of the past. And now to turn this girl . . ."
Gabriella nodded inwardly, that was the crux of it. Francesca herself was jealous of Persephone.
"I want you to keep an eye on him for me."
Gabriella crossed over to the wardrobe stripping out of her outdoor clothes as she went. And how do I do that?"
Francesca was up behind her again, her arm curling around the small of her naked back. "I'll come up with some way to get you together."
Gabriella was glad that Francesca couldn't see her face.
They returned down the stairs a couple of hours later. Fulton and Persephone were curled up together on the sofa.
"I want you to teach Gabriella some self-defence so that I know she can take care of herself. Xavier may have been dealt with but other of our enemies could resurface."
Fulton looked from Francesca to Gabriella and back again. "I only ever learned a little really. I was never one of the top in my classes."
"You know more of the martial arts than I do. You can teach her some basics for now, at least until I find somebody better."
Fulton relented and acquiesced with a nod.
"I don't need any lessons," Fulton's bitch, Persephone, put in. "I won't be going anywhere without my Fulton."
Francesca's expression let Gabriella know that she couldn't care less whether Persephone could take care of herself or not. A sentiment Gabriella could more than agree with.
It was time for Gabriella's next training session and Persephone had obviously had her fill of watching. She had been there for the first few sessions watching and offering distracting comments. On more than one occasion Fulton himself had lost patience with her incessant chatter and when he finally shouted at her to be quiet or to leave them alone she had backed away like a scolded dog. She hadn't left then because to do so would have made her loose face, but she also hadn't chosen to come along this time.
Gabriella put herself through a series of stretches
to warm her body up and Fulton watched running through his own routine. He wore shorts and a plain white baggy T-shirt with no shoes or socks. Gabriella wore charcoal jogging-trousers and a wrestling T-shirt, she was similarly barefoot.
They were working out in the dining room which had had all the furniture removed to prepare it for the purpose. Only the worn carpet remained and that had only stayed to provide a slim layer of padding to protect them when they really got into it.
Fulton finished his routine and put his full concentration on watching her complete hers. She felt suddenly self-conscious knowing he was scrutinising her every movement. She finished her warm-up to see him smiling warmly at her.
"Very good," he said. "Francesca doesn't want you to be taking anybody on, she wants you to be able to quickly knock them down and run away and I have to agree with that. With that in mind you need to be able to break any holds they might put on you or prevent them getting hold of you in the first place. That's where we start today."
They spent the next hour quickly running through the methods she could use to deflect a single attacker who was trying to grab her around the throat from in front of her. When she demonstrated an instinctive reaction to attacks of that nature Fulton moved on to a variety of defences to use against attackers coming from a variety of different angles. Gabriella had to practice each of these defences until they too became instinctive.
When they had been at it for several hours and they were both sweaty and tired Fulton decided she had earned a break.
"You're learning quickly," he congratulated her. "Do you see how the exercises I taught you can be converted into deflecting a variety of attacks?"
Gabriella nodded drinking in air.
Fulton got back to his feet. "Let's see if you can link them together against an attacker who isn't just going to stop at one type of attack."
He let her get into an opposing stance and then began with a straightforward lunge for her throat. Gabriella adjusted her stance like he had shown her and brought her hands up in front of her body between his. She parted her arms in a big waving motion that took his arms with them well away from her body. Fulton immediately changed his stance and modified his attack so that it was now coming at her from her left side. She matched his stance with the corresponding opposing stance he had taught her and deflected the attack with ease. Again Fulton changed his position and came at her in an attack from behind. He almost had her around the throat when she tried to twist and deflect like he had shown her. This time though he moved to block her defence and tightened his grip. He had her held with one arm around her neck and the other pinning her body so that she couldn't use her arms to free herself.
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