“Ah, Sofia. What frivolous thing have you decided to waste your one phone call on?” Eloise answered. Sofia didn’t even know how Eloise knew it was her.

“Wait, I only get one call?” Sofia protested.

“Darling, it’s a burner. More than one use would defy the purpose. Now spit it out, what’s this emergency of yours?”

Sofia felt rather silly as she paced in the living room. “There's no emergency, I'm just… trying to figure out logistics.”

“A logistical emergency?”

“I guess,” Sofia sighed.

“Well?”

“How… I drained someone. I’m… better. How… How long does it last? How long until everything goes numb again?”

“A big someone or a small someone? If you’ve drained an infant, Childe, you're not going to get very far,” Eloise replied. Sofia was quickly remembering why she had such a strong distaste for Eloise.

“Big,” she forced out.

Eloise sighed into the phone. “Well… a decent-sized adult a week will keep you in tip-top shape. If you want to spend any time in the sun you will have to get fairly dirty.”

That was way too short of a time frame. It had already been over a week anyway.

“How long until… I get cold again?” Sofia asked.

“Maybe a month, give or take, a few weeks until the glow properly fades again.”

A kill a month, 12 people a year. The price of feeling normal.

“And um… blood bonding,” Sofia quickly began.

Eloise laughed.

“How often does she need my blood and how much?” Sofia continued, ignoring Eloise’s amusement.

“Well… blood slaves are… somewhat extensions of you really. Ideally, nurse them after you feed, your blood will be its most potent. It’s magic, darling, not science. Don’t worry about it too much, just enjoy it. I must get going, I'm afraid, dinner is here.”

“Wait,” Sofia protested.

“Do track me down sometime, it would be good to catch up.”

The line went dead.

“Fuck!” Sofia growled to herself. The only logical explanation was that Eloise just liked tormenting her. Dangling only a few answers in front of her at a time. Would it kill her to stay a few moments longer or chat on the phone later?

Actually Sofia had no idea. Maybe.

She hadn’t even had a chance to ask about what could kill them. For the time being, she would just keep staying far away from sharp pieces of wood and avoid having her head cut off.

Still… she had some more answers now. A life a month.

And Jackie. Sofia hadn’t liked the term blood slave nor the way Eloise had said it. Jackie would be delighted to hear her guess had been onto something. But Sofia wasn’t entirely sure they should be going through with it.

Jackie had gone to class today which meant this revelation would have to wait until tonight. Sofia didn’t much like the idea of leaving an electronic trail of all this.

Once again she wished she could sleep. She had gotten her hopes up after feeling tired. But when it came down to it she was still dead, her heart did not beat. Rest was still beyond her reach. All she had was a poor facsimile of life as beautiful as it was.

Meditation was the closest she was going to get. Even just closing her eyes for a little while, taking a break from the world, helped. But nothing compared to the sleep she had lost.

It was all rather stupid, Jackie had a point. She was a fucking vampire. Moping did not suit her. But she was sad, she was grieving herself. It would take some time to move on.

She needed something to do. She had plenty of reading for the classes she had been ignoring. But philosophy was the last thing she wanted to immerse herself in. Too heavy, too real.

She could just make her professors give her an A. Sofia didn’t love the idea of doing that though.

She fiddled with her glasses. She couldn’t hide in the apartment forever. With her waning tolerance to the sun maybe she could try going to an evening class. If she was all bundled up it could work. But what if it didn’t? Things could so easily go wrong.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

What about her family, her blindness hardly mattered if she cowered in the shadows during the day. But her family would notice. What would she even tell them?

Even if she consumed a life a week, how tolerant to the sun would that even really make her? Even if her skin didn’t smoulder it would do nothing for her vision.

Of course, the alternative was feeding from many people, continuously keeping herself topped off and strong. But that meant… a harem of blood bags. That somehow seemed so much worse. Keeping people in her vicinity for the sole purpose of being a little snack.

The volume of a pint of blood lost could be replaced in a day, but it took weeks to replenish the red blood cells lost. Sofia wasn’t sure what exactly contained the life force but a pint every 4-6 weeks would hardly be enough and that would be pushing it.

Losing 40% of one’s blood resulted in exsanguination. So she was only actually consuming 4 pints of life a month, ish. Again, she was mostly guessing.

Drinking a pint a week would be enough to keep herself warm. Presumably more.

So at the very least, she would need eight people. Presumably more.

Though… Eloise had said it just had to be mammalian blood. It might not be as effective… but it would work. Livestock would be far easier to farm than people…

Gem Creek had lots of cows.

A plan began to form. Maybe she could do more than simply survive. Maybe she could thrive.

She was more than glad she had taken on a personal assistant. This was definitely not a one-woman project.

Still, she would need staff, land, money, and lots of other things. All just to keep herself sated. It would work.

Or… she could kill a person a month. Such a simpler price to pay. One night a month all she had to do was drain the life from someone.

It would be easy compared to what she was considering. There were bad people out there, people she could ethically kill. But it would be risky, dangerous, murder. She would be hunted, her crimes investigated. Every meal was an opportunity for mortals to realize what she was and kill her.

There was no good option. But only one offered a quiet life. It was also not possible right now.

But maybe one day, maybe one day she could comfortably settle herself down somewhere and make the most of her immortality.

----------------------------------------

“One person a month?” Jackie asked.

Sofia nodded.

“I can’t believe you wasted your emergency call on something like this,” Jackie groaned, setting her bag down on the kitchen table. “Are you kidding me?”

“I needed to know,” Sofia protested. “I… I needed a timeline so I didn’t act prematurely.”

Jackie bit back a laugh. Sofia glared.

“Also apparently the correct terminology isn’t personal assistant but blood slave. I don’t know what drinking my blood will do to you but I think we should stop,” Sofia retorted, wanting to turn the conversation around.

“Do I need to remind you that Eloise is the psycho sociopath that killed you?” Jackie huffed. “Of course, that’s what she would call people, she’s a monster.”

“I just… something doesn’t sit right,” Sofia sighed.

Jackie stepped forward and put her hands on Sofia’s shoulders, crouching down a little to make eye contact, even if she couldn’t actually see Sofia’s eyes. “Look, how else are we going to figure this out? I know you’re scared, I’m scared too. If this gives you more control over me or something I’m ok with that, I trust you. Really.”

Sofia just shook her head. What kind of fucking logic was that. Sofia couldn’t think of a worse nightmare than someone having the kind of power her eyes had over her.

“What if it’s worse than that?” Sofia asked. “I can’t control my eyes, what if I can’t control… it?”

“Then stop giving me blood, undo it, whatever. You have the power here, you can’t afford to be scared of it,” Jackie coaxed.

“I just… I don’t want to hurt you,” Sofia sighed.

“That’s why I trust you,” Jackie smiled. “Because I know your philosophizing ass is a good and kind person.”

Sofia couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled out of her. “You do remember that I killed your father.”

“And he deserved it,” Jackie replied solemnly.

“You trust me more than I trust anyone. And that’s insane since I can hurt you more than anyone,” Sofia replied with a wince, uncomfortable at her own words.

Jackie’s smile faded a little. “I’ve always been an all-in kind of girl.”

Sofia sighed. “Fuck it then, but if any time you want out say the word.”

Jackie nodded. “Alright, I promise.”

That was good enough for Sofia… mostly. Clearly it would take her more time to accept the idea than Jackie.

“On the topic of your mind control powers,” Jackie began, walking over to her bag. “We need to do some testing.”

Sofia opened her mouth to protest.

“Nope,” Jackie interrupted before Sofia could even begin. “Here,” she said, pulling a few books out of her bag.

Curiosity got the better of Sofia and she approached. They were books on hypnosis.

“Any hypnotist will tell you they can’t make you do things against your will. Which is bullshit for the record, but there is some truth to it,” Jackie began. “Humans go into trance all the time, meditation, sleep, just zoning out, getting so sucked into something that hours pass, all sorts of stuff. For hypnosis, you gotta play along, or else it doesn’t work.”

Sofia was not remotely prepared for a lecture but she nodded. She hadn’t even known hypnosis was actually real let alone… all this. She just nodded.

“Your eyes put people in trance… but like against their will and instantly, plus amnesia. It’s… fucking magic but theoretically, anything you can do with regular hypnosis you could probably do and more with your freaky eyes,” Jackie concluded.

“Right…” Sofia muttered.

“So… while you can kinda just throw inductions out the window there are tons of books and websites on the shit you can pull. And since I know for a fact you don’t sleep… start with these,” Jackie ordered.

Sofia looked down and flipped one of the books over, reading the back cover. “I… okay,” she shrugged. It wasn’t much of a hard sell, the topic already interested her and well… she had freaky magic eyes. How could she not investigate further?

“Good, once you know some routines we can test them out. Honestly, I’m kinda jealous, it took so many tries to actually get Mark into trance and you can just bypass the hardest part.”

“Mark was interested in hypnosis?” Sofia asked. They had broken up shortly after she had moved in. Though it hadn’t really seemed like a super serious thing.

“Oh he was into it, into it” Jackie winked. “Erotic hypnosis is a whole thing unto itself.”

Sofia’s eyes went wide. Both at the revelation and the feelings coursing through her. Embarrassment, curiosity, a little arousal. Her cheeks felt flushed and her mouth failed to find words. God she had missed feeling things. Even this situation which she would have found mortifying was hard not to enjoy.

“Oh,” she finally croaked out.

Jackie was looking at her strangely. “Discover something new about yourself?”

Embarrassment flushed through her physically but it only made Sofia chuckle. “Maybe.”

Her response only seemed to surprise Jackie further. All Sofia could offer was an embraced shrug.

“It’s just,” Sofia began. “It's so nice to be alive again. You can’t know how important feeling is until you lose it. It’s like being a prisoner in your own body, you can think all you want but your body never responds.”

Jackie gave her a smile. “Well get used to it. You watch my back and I’ll watch yours. I’m not going to let things go back to the way they were.”

It was Sofia’s turn to smile, genuinely touched by Jackie's words. Had they always been so close to each other? Sofia could hear the thudding of Jackie’s heart, and feel the warmth radiating off her.

Nerves and heat mixed together in her abdomen. How easy it would be to lean forward. Not to sink her teeth into Jackie, but press their lips together.

She felt a little dizzy. She had forgotten what attraction felt like. Jackie had always been beautiful but… this was new. A genuine closeness was new.

“I… should get to reading then,” Sofia offered, holding the books up.

Jackie blinked. “Sure.”

“Uh… good luck with your work.”

“Thanks, y-you too,” Jackie replied.

Sofia couldn’t escape to her room fast enough. She felt like a shy teenager again. How utterly ridiculous. She was relearning how to feel things as much as she was remembering. Maybe she had forgotten more than she had thought. Maybe she was learning more than she had ever expected.

She made a note to look up erotic hypnosis later. And masturbate, she could do that again. Oh, thank fuck!