"You broke my heart, Sebastian."

He brushed a tear from my cheek. "Didn't you realize how impossible it was for us to ever be together?"

"No," I said honestly. "Why was it impossible?"

"I am my father's son. I was born to greatness," he said, pleased with his entitlement, his position, his unearned wealth. "You were born to..." He stroked my arm. "Is this a tan?"

"Yes, I can tan now. I'm over that infection." I was my mother Regina's daughter. I was born to survive, I thought. "How are the others? Are they all right?"

"We're not the animals, Milagro. They are."

I held up my hands. "Then please take these off?"

We stared at each other and I tried to make my look convey all the dirty thoughts I'd had since puberty, which were considerable. When he reached into his pocket and took out a tiny key, I felt a jolt of power. Milagro De Los Santos, femme fatale!

Sebastian put the key into the lock. "Are you sure you're not contaminated?"

"Would I be here if I was? Would my skin look like this?" I shrugged and the dress slid off one brown shoulder.

He turned the key and removed the handcuffs. I rubbed my wrists and did not give in to my strong desire to scream bloody murder and begin choking this man. I let him put his hands on my hips. I arched my neck back and gave a small moan.

He pressed his face between my breasts and groaned, "You don't know how often I've replayed that night together."

I stroked his thick hair and said, "Me, too, baby," and debased what had been one of my dearest memories.

When he raised his face, Sebastian's cheeks were flushed and his pupils had expanded like an addict's. "When I come back, we will share something special together."

"I know we will," I answered. I wondered if I'd always dread "special" presents from men. Knowing that Sebastian had willingly given me up for a club was worse than thinking that he had never loved me. Ian's depravity did not compare with Sebastian's moral abyss.

When the door clicked shut, I whispered softly, "Mercedes, please come quick!"

I sat on the desk and tried to think. What I needed to do now was keep Sebastian in that conflicted place where he desired me but couldn't justify it. Ian was right: there were predators and prey; when forced to decide between the two, I knew which I wanted to be.

I snooped around the office. The desk drawers were empty and the mysterious door led to a restroom, but I didn't think I could attack anyone with a roll of toilet paper. I tried to pry the towel bar off the wall, but it was industrial grade and held firm.

Eventually, I fell into a bleak mood of boredom and terror.

I heard the outer door open and close, then footsteps approaching, and then the door to the office opened. Mini-Peters entered carrying lunch on a tray, a garment bag slung over his arm. He banged the tray down on the desk. "The boss said to get you Cobb salad," he spat out.

There was an appetizing salad, a bottle of mineral water, a cookie, a cloth napkin, and a fork. "That's so sweet. Are the fellows getting the same great food?"

"You mean those creatures from hell? All they get is oatmeal."

What was it about Oswald and oatmeal?

Mini-Peters came close to me and I could smell beer on his breath and the stink of sweat coming through his polyester suit. A gun bulged at his waist. "You think you're smart, huh? You're not smart. Sebastian's smart. He's got those vampires next to a bunch of hemophiliacs. When those demons go for the defectives, we'll have some dead bodies to prove that none of you is human."

Sebastian could wait forever, I thought, because I knew my vamps wouldn't hurt anyone for blood.

Mini-Peters threw the garment bag at me. "You dress in this now. Boss's orders."

I cautiously unzipped the bag and saw a black satin and lace bustier, a black leather miniskirt, black stockings, and black leather boots.

Mini-Peters took out his gun. His eyes shone dangerously and his breath quickened. "Do what I tell you. Get changed."

While I undressed, he watched. He gave a grunt when he saw my fancy red lace bra and chones.

"You filthy whore!" he snarled, and moved toward me. I knew exactly what was on the mind of this woman hater. I picked up the boots, one in each hand. I swung at his head with one boot and bashed the gun from his hand with the other. Before he recovered from the blow, I dove at his knees and he fell, his head making a solid thud as it hit the floor.

I'd scrambled for the gun and was ready to threaten him before I realized that he hadn't moved. He was still breathing, but his eyes were closed. I needed to make sure he wouldn't attack me again. I ripped my dress into shreds and used them to gag and tie him.

After taking the keys from his jacket pocket, I dragged him to the bathroom and closed the door. I knew I couldn't thwart all the guards by myself, but at least I could investigate the situation. Having no other options, I dressed in the vampyre outfit and picked up the gun.

I cracked open the outer door and peaked out. I'd stepped out to the empty hallway when I heard a terrified scream coming from past the set of double doors. I dashed toward the sound and pushed one door open a few inches: Sebastian was coming out of a room carrying a bloody knife. When he turned into another corridor, I ran to see what awful thing he had done.In a barren exam room, I found a pale and scrawny young man trying desperately to staunch the flow of blood coming from his wrist. "Help me!" he whispered weakly. "Someone help me!"

"I'm here," I said.

When he saw me in my vampyre get-up holding the gun, his eyes opened wide and he cried, "Don't kill me!"

"I'm not a vampire," I said, "I only play one on TV." I crouched down to look at his wrist. "We've got to get a doctor."

"They put me here and that man, that man... I'm a hemophiliac and I need my treatment..."

He began to pass out and I knew I needed to act fast. I remembered what Ian had said about my blood tasting like life and death and life again. "I'm going to try something," I told the young man. "I don't know if it will work."

He was muttering now and I could barely make out his words. "I'm going to die without ever feeling a woman's tits."

"Go ahead," I said. It was about time I used the power of my chichis for good and not for evil. I bit down on my lip until I tasted the sharp metallic tang of blood, and then I put my mouth to his wrist. He reached over and curled his free hand into my bustier, releasing first one and then the other breast. As I kept my lips on his wrist, I felt his attentions to my nipples grow more and more enthusiastic and then heard him say, "Hot damn, baby, what a great rack!"

I couldn't feel the flow of blood anymore and I pulled my mouth away from his wrist. As fascinated as the young man was with my anatomy, he became even more astonished with his own. "How did you do that?" he asked, looking at the flesh that had formed a rough scab.

"I'm not just a girl with a great rack," I said. "I am Milagro De Los Santos, the miracle of the saints." Shoving my breasts back into the bustier, I said, "We gotta get out of here. What's your name anyway?"

"Hugo. So would you like to go out sometime?"

"Hugo, we have other things to worry about at the moment. Have you seen some guys locked up here? One looks like a math professor, one's a darling redhead, and the other, well..."

"Was there a snotty old lady with them for a while?"

"Yes, and a pretty blond woman."

"They're here with my medical study group of hemophiliacs," said Hugo. "I don't understand what's going on. We were told that they were developing a new treatment..."

"You were being used as bait," I said as we ventured into the hallway.

"They have guards on all the doors."

"The cavalry should be here soon, but we've got to lay low until then," I said. I took him back to the office and locked the doors behind us. Hugo was still gazing lovestruck at my boobs when I shoved him in the bathroom and said, "Stay there and keep quiet."

"Hey! There's a guy tied up here!"

"Yeah, and there'll be another if you don't shut up." I had barely closed the door to the bathroom when I heard someone coming into the office. I slipped the gun into the desk drawer and sat atop the desk as if I'd been relaxing.Sebastian came in. He'd changed his clothes, and I wondered if Hugo's blood was on his other suit. He gave me a glassy-eyed smile that made my gut churn. "You look incredible," he said.

Prostitutes always claimed that many of their clients just wanted someone to talk to, so I said, "Sebastian, tell me why you're so fanatical about the vampires. You know that it's only a genetic anomaly."

"It's an exceedingly profitable genetic anomaly. The old guard in the Chalice are stuck in old economic models, old technologies, old ideas. They hated the vampires on principle instead of realizing the financial opportunities they present. If my group can jump on this opportunity in the genetic engineering sector, we'll be able to amass enough money and power to drive the organization."

"What of the vampires themselves? What of their rights?"

"Individual rights are subservient to the needs of our organization. I accept that my personal rights are subservient to those of the Chalice." He looked at me the way a hungry dog looks at a plate of barbecue. "Just as your personal rights are subservient to mine."

"I'm willing to accept that to be with you. But what are your plans for me? How do we go on?"

"I've got it all figured out," he said eagerly. "I'm buying an apartment for us. You can live there and I'll come when I can. There'll be a guard, of course, just as a precaution. You can go out as long as you're escorted. You won't need to work, so you'll always be free when I want you, when I need you."

Sebastians hands were on me before I could really process the idea of being a full-time sex slave. He began grinding his hips against me and clutching my breasts, my ass. He stared straight at me and I tried to hide my revulsion and panic. I kept thinking of the gun in the desk drawer.

I heard voices outside and improvised. I massaged the front of his slacks and said, "But what about Tessie?" The office door began to open and I stepped away from Sebastian and repeated loudly, "Won't Tessie be upset if you keep a mistress?"

He frantically yanked down his trousers and said, "I don't give one damn about Tessie."

Tessie herself stood staring at Sebastian. Her scream instantly deflated his excitement. Behind her was a tall, dashing patrician man-and Edna. While Sebastian quickly pulled up his pants, Edna said, "Oh, Frederick, this is really intolerable. I insist that you do something about this wretched boy immediately."

Sebastian blanched and choked out, "Gramps, this isn't what you think."

Frederick Beckett-Witherspoon, confidant of presidents, commander of a vast financial empire, and participant in international affairs, strode forward and faced his grandson. "What the hell do you think you've been doing?"

I ran to Edna, who took me in her arms. "I told you not to leave," she said into my hair as I clung tightly to her. "You see why I don't trust your clothing choices?"

Sebastian desperately tried to regain his composure. Brushing back his shining hair, he looked at his audience. "Tessie, there is a reasonable explanation." Addressing the older man, he added, "Sir, you have come at an untoward moment..."

"Boy, your whole damn life has been one untoward moment after another," boomed Frederick. "Deciding you wanted to be a pansy writer and then trying to take CACA off in a 'new direction.' You're not Chalice of Blood material, boy."

"A highly profitable new direction-" Sebastian started to say.

"I saw what direction you were taking," shrieked Tessie.She marched to Sebastian and slapped him hard across the face. Glaring at me, she said, "You're a slut and I hate you!" Her mascara was so good that it did not run with her tears.

"I'm sorry, Tessie. You were always decent to me, but honestly, you can do better than Sebastian."

I saw the hurt in her eyes, and then she ran out of the room.

"Chalice of Blood?" asked Edna, releasing me from the hug but keeping her arm around me. "Frederick, I remember when you were a young man in Chalice of Blood."

He winked at Edna. "Edna, you and that damn book were very nearly the end of me." They shared a warm smile before his face turned grim. "This younger generation, they think they know everything. They're green and greedy and don't want to pay their dues."

I had been watching the interaction, and I wanted a few answers. Looking from Frederick to Edna, I asked, "You two know each other?"

"Oh, we're old friends," Edna said.

"Old enemies," Frederick chuckled. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, especially when they're so irresistible.

Ah, Edna, why wouldn't you ever run away with me?"

"Because you were quite evil, Frederick," she said with a laugh. "But you were very handsome and tremendously fun."

Frederick turned to Sebastian and said, "And you, boy, did you actually think you and your fellow young bucks would wrest control of the Chalice and put our administration out to pasture? I've brought down governments for less reason than your insubordination."

"Gramps, this effort was absolutely not a power play! I thought you'd appreciate the way we'd use the vampires to expand our assets and-"

"That reminds me, boy," said Frederick. "Siphoning CACA funds into your personal offshore accounts was damn stupid. I'm pulling in major chips so that your spoiled ass doesn't fry. Those monies are going to be returned and the interest is going to come out of your trust fund."

Sebastian shook his head in confusion and said, "But, sir, I haven't done anything like that! I never-"

"If that wasn't enough," Frederick said, "someone got into all our financial records and is threatening to expose them if we don't release Edna's family."

"Frederick, if you were honest and aboveboard, you would have nothing to hide," Edna said.

Frederick burst out laughing. "You amuse me, Edna. God, how I've missed that."

Sebastian's face took on a calculating expression. "This situation can be remedied, Gramps. Perhaps I did begin this project without your approval, but that doesn't mean I can't hand it off to you. I've had my operatives collect important historical documents that will allow us to hold the vampires indefinitely." Sebastian yelled out, "Peters!"

"This better be good, Sebastian," said Frederick.

Peters hurried into the room and Sebastian told him, "Bring those letters here now!" Peters ran out and Sebastian smiled nervously at his grandfather. "You will see how these documents can expedite our containment of the vampires. I'd like to move these creatures ASAP to non-U.S. territory for experimentation." Peters rushed back with a metal case. At Sebastian's nod, he unlocked it and handed it to Frederick.

I inhaled Edna's fragrance of lemon verbena and enjoyed this closeness to her. Frederick removed a sheaf of papers from the case and slowly went through them. Then he stopped and studied one sheet. He took off his glasses, brought the page close to his face, and squinted. Then he put on his glasses again. He held the sheet of paper to his grandson, who was smiling with expectation.

"Boy," Frederick barked. "Benjamin Franklin did not sign his name with tiny little hearts over the i's!" But- "Shut up, boy," Frederick said, and ripped the letter to shreds. He let them flutter to the floor and then gave a long, lecherous look at my outfit. "Edna, this girl reminds me of you. Is she one of yours?"

Edna's arm was firmly around my waist. "Yes, she is as a matter of fact."

"You don't hate me?" I asked her.

"You really are ridiculous, Young Lady."

The bathroom door creaked open and Hugo peered out. "Can I come out now, babe?" he asked plaintively.

epilogue

There was a tense hour of negotiation between Sam and Frederick before the rest of the vampires were released. I learned that we had been kept in an unused wing of a research hospital. Edna and I sat in a small waiting room. She told me how the sheriff had appeared at the ranch and taken them into custody. They'd been treated decently, but were concerned about Winnie.

"Is she okay?" I said. "Did she work things out with Oswald?"

"You know I don't meddle in the affairs of others," Edna said. Changing the subject, she said, "I called Frederick as soon as you got me out."

"So he acted out of his affection for you," I said.