Allison was sitting across from Zuri in her armor.  Lucifer was almost moaning in pleasure as Allison ate the perfectly prepared steak, which was actually not beef but another quadruped animal that the System’s Alliance was still domesticating.  So, the meat was a strange cyan color but it had a much better texture and flavor than actual beef steak.  Zuri looked at the older teenager after she took a bite of her egg yolk covered toast, she took a few moments to speak.


    “Allison, is it strange for you to have a younger aunt?”


    Allison shrugged and finished her bite of steak.


    “You know, for me it’s just your average Tuesday lately?  Things have gotten weird since I started grade eleven.”


    Zuri lifted a piece of cyan meat she’d cut off her steak.


    “Is this… alright?”


    Allison took another bite of hers and nodded repeatedly.


    “It is amazing, I’m not sure what animal it comes from but… so much better then beef steak, even real steak.”


    Zuri took a tentative bite, and she was hooked immediately.  She looked at the table that could hold six.


    “Where is everyone else?”


    Allison finished swallowing a mouthful of coffee.


    “Uh, I don’t really use this place that much?  I had a promise to keep this morning, usually I eat in the mess with everyone else, but I guess this is better?  Just us family chatting?”


    Zuri took a drink of the juice.


    “What is this?  It tastes so good.”


    Allison smiled.


    “Ah, I think the Sauroid’s call it H’sstor.  Roughly translated I think it means, wake up juice, it’s like umm, it has a caffeine like thingy… basically it’s an energy drink but it comes from lavender colored citrus… sort of fruit.  It’s pretty amazing stuff, don’t get the whole crash thing afterwards.  Sorry I would have warned you, but I didn’t notice what it was.”


    Zuri shrugged and kept drinking the juice.


    “It is very good.  Like wine.  It makes the steak taste even better.”


    The chef, who was a Grylta of all things, entered the dining room.  He put his hands on his belly and hmphed his eyes were focused on the coffee Allison was drinking.  He looked at Zuri instead.


    “How is your breakfast young human?”


    Zuri blinked at the frankly hideous looking humanoid and was speechless.


    “She was just telling me how amazing the juice and steak combination was, chef.”


    He hmphed and his lips did that natural raspberry thing Grylta did when they were annoyed.  He adjusted his thick glasses.


    “At least someone eats their meal as presented.”


    His tone oozed annoyance and indignance.  Allison pulled her juice glass out from behind the coffee pot and took a drink then took a bite of her steak.  It was better she had to admit.  She couldn’t meet her chef’s gaze.


    “Sorry, chef, I just saw the coffee.”


    He reached down and tapped the printed menu he had provided then waddled off indignantly.  It took only a few seconds for both teenagers to dissolve into giggles at the encounter.  Lucifer was annoyed.


    “Less laughing, more eating with the juice this time, that coffee tastes like someone’s trying to poison you.”


    Allison gave him a withering glance then pushed her coffee aside and took another drink of the juice before taking more steak.  Zuri leaned closer.


    “What was that?”


    Allison glanced in the direction her chef had waddled off.


    “A Grylta.  They are… naturally grouchy and very particular.  I uh, didn’t pick him I didn’t think to pick a personal chef, so I got whoever they sent.  Like I said I always eat in the mess with everyone else.”


    Zuri giggled again.


    “He seemed very annoyed.”


    Allison nodded.


    “He was; When they’re happy they do far less raspberries.”


    Zuri dissolved into giggles again which Allison found infectious, so she ended up giggling too.  She found she was enjoying the company of her aunt she wondered if this was what her mother was like as a child.  After they calmed themselves, Zuri looked at the empty seats again.


    “The cousins you mentioned are they related to me too?”


    Allison shook her head.


    “No, sorry they are cousins from my birth mother’s side of the family.  So umm, I was meaning to explain about me… and them.”


    Zuri looked up with a curious look in her eyes.  Allison pondered where her mother’s sense of wonder had gone.


    “So umm, you know… uh what vampires and werewolves are?”


    Zuri nodded.


    “Like from that show Vampire Diaries?”


    Allison vaguely recalled her mother watching that one when she was younger.


    “Uh, I guess, sort of.  So, like… my biological mother was a vampire… sort of.  So, I am… half vampire.  We’re called Dhampir.”


    Allison had all of Zuri’s attention now.


    “Vampires are real?”


    Allison nodded.


    “Yeah, I’m related to a few of them, like uh, the President of the System’s Alliance is my uh… biological mom’s sister and she’s also a three thousand year old vampire and umm… so I should mention I drink blood from time to time… from a bottle, we have synthetic stuff now that keeps us well fed.  So umm… there is that.  So like, my cousins are uh, Dhampir’s too but umm, they’re also wolf-born uh, you’d call them werewolves.  And the.. Veronica who wow not getting into exactly what she is to me because wow weird and I’m still trying to figure it out.  Anyway, she’s a vampire… And uh, Widow, whose going to be helping get you caught up on well everything is a werewolf too.”


    Allison scratched the back of her head.


    “So, like… that’s about the weirdest part of things.  Are you uh, okay?”


    Zuri blinked a few times then shrugged and took a bite of her steak once she’d swallowed she giggled.


    “Next thing you’re going to tell me is that Lucifer is real.  If he’s like his show, I would love to meet him.”


    Allison looked at Lucifer who was looking pretty proud of himself.  Allison sighed.


    “You really wouldn’t want to, I assure you… if he were real…”


    Zuri wiggled in her chair.


    “Have you seen the show?”


    Allison nodded.


    “Yes, mom and I have watched most of it, we have the last season to go but she’s hesitant.  I don’t get it but whatever.”


    Zuri giggled again.


    “She’d never read the last page in books either.  She was always afraid it would be a bad ending.  She always made up her own.”


    Allison quirked her head to the side.  That was something she didn’t know about her mother.  Her AR HUD flashed telling her it was time for school.  She stood up and tapped around on her AR HUD her forms shifted as her holo-web projected a copy of the school uniform.  She snapped her fingers; She’d almost forgotten her eyes.  She closed them to focus and then turned around to look at herself in the viewport.  She smiled at her now green eyes.  Zuri watched all this with a keen interest.


    “It’s that easy to get changed now?”


    Allison blinked a few times then laughed.


    “No, it’s a holo-web.  My bodyguard refused to let me to go school alone unless I was wearing armor.  Still not sure why it’s called a web but whatever.”


    Zuri hadn’t finished her breakfast yet but was standing up.  Allison held up her hand.


    “No need to rush on my account.  I have a security detail stationed out front.  They can get you wherever you need to go.  Before you ask, no you’re not in any danger here, they just don’t have much else to do, we’re in space dock.”


    Allison picked up her school bag and then opened a comm to her transporter room.


    “Is site to site transport working yet?”


    She heard Callum respond.


    “Aye Lassie, where you heading?”


    Allison swept her hand on her AR HUD to send the coordinates to the comm channel.  Callum spoke.


    “Here you go.”


    Allison waved at Zuri as she dematerialized.  She found herself on the sidewalk near the school.  She hefted her bag and walked onwards.  She was not looking forward to the school day.  Zelda had made it bearable, she assumed her friend would be at home spending time with her parents.  Lucifer looked up at the school.


    “So, help me understand this, mortal, you can wrestle a literal god to the ground, devour his soul, you have the power in your hands to destroy a star and wipe out fleets of ships, yet you allow them to force you to go to this… institution?”


    Allison shook her head.


    “You wouldn’t understand, Mr. Daddy-issues.  I’m a teenager.  I like hanging out with other teenagers.  This is normal.  I like being normal.  It keeps my mom and my aunt happy.  Why would I not do it?”


    Lucifer waved his hand over the gathering students as they stood at the top of the school stairs.


    “They are your inferiors.  You have the power of divinity within you.  You could conquer the entire universe and bring it to heel.  No one would be able to oppose you.  Yet you waste your time here among this refuse.”


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    Allison shook her head slowly.


    “Careful, your megalomaniacal side is showing.”


    Lucifer smirked.


    “Just because I am my own self now doesn’t mean I think any better of mortals.  One and all they are tadpoles squirming around in the mud.  Lesser copies of my brothers and sisters.  Cheap knockoff’s as you will.  Look at them, sweating and panting.  Parasites is what mortals are.”


    “You said, they, what, now I’m better than them?”


    He nodded.


    “It took me time to sense it, but you carry Seraph’s power in you.  You are no more a mortal than I am, now it makes sense how you could defeat me.  Why even now I slowly fade away.  It was why in my haze of madness I thought you were her.”


    Allison sighed and opened her locker.


    “Yeah, I haven’t done any drugs so that means if you believe that you’re still insane.  Now shush I have a test I have to take and pretend their equations are right.”


    Allison sat down and was a bit surprised to see Zelda rushing in just before the bell.  Lucifer spent the class mocking the inferior intellect of her math teacher for not recognizing the equations were wrong after Allison told them they were.  Allison didn’t engage with him.  Zelda kept giving Allison strange looks.  The empath had definitely noticed something was different about her strange friend she made it to lunch without actually asking, which if you knew Zelda you would know the task had taken an unimaginable amount of willpower.


    “Something is different with your aura.  You have two.”


    Allison raised an eyebrow she hadn’t taken into account Zelda’s empathic abilities when she’d left for school in the morning.  It was too late now.  Allison bit her lower lip pondering how to respond.


    “Uh, well I drank something’s blood, if I take too much sometimes part of them sticks with me for a little while.  I’m pretty sure I’ll have purged it by Sunday.”


    Allison was careful to dance around the actual subject.  She wasn’t sure how good Zelda’s ability was, she hoped ninety percent of the truth was enough to convince her.  Zelda smiled.


    “Oh, that must be weird.”


    Allison glared at Lucifer.


    “You have no idea.  Anyway, I thought you’d be at home with your parents today.”


    Zelda shook her head.


    “They’re still in the hospital.  They told me to come to school today.”


    “Oh.  So umm, I’m really sorry I dragged you out there with us.  I shouldn’t have.  It was stupid and dangerous.”


    Zelda shrugged and smiled.


    “It was fun, once I knew everyone was safe.  Nutina was telling me all about you.  I don’t care if you don’t sparkle, you’re still my favorite vampire.”


    Allison blushed.


    “Not a full vampire… anyway, I’m glad your parents are alright.”


    Zelda nodded.


    “I have so many questions.”


    Allison picked up a piece of raw onion and bit into it while staring into Lucifer’s eyes.  The fallen angel started spitting but of course since he had no control over the body all he could do was suffer with the flavor.  Zelda took Allison’s silence as consent.


    “So, like have you ever smelled blood like Bella’s you know how Edward has to resist it with all his willpower?”


    Allison shook her head.


    “No, well… when I haven’t had any for a while and I’m low all blood smells like that.”


    Zelda tapped her black nails on the table.


    “What does it… what is it like to… what does it taste like when you drink from someone?”


    Allison was getting flashbacks of Trixie’s vampire obsession she let it slide and just answered Zelda.


    “It tastes like them.  Like we have synthetic blood we drink its nourishing and neutral it doesn’t taste like anything, I mean it’s good, but like… you know how water is just like water?  That’s what that stuff is like.  Drinking from someone, it tastes like them.  Their hopes, their fears, their dreams, it’s why we’re not supposed to drink from people, it’s amazing and hard to resist.  Like would you drink water, or would you drink the best thing ever?”


    Lucifer grinned.


    “Oh, we’re drinking from her before we go home.”


    Allison gave him the stink eye.  Zelda was leaning closer.


    “What about being bitten?  What’s it feel like?”


    Allison would like to say she’d never had the experience but she’d made out with Isis’s daughter and fangs did pierce necks, among other places.  She blushed and shivered a bit at the memories.  Lucifer looked rather pleased by the memories too.  Allison felt gross now. She took a few seconds to answer.


    “Uh, good, really good.”


    Zelda tapped her fingers on the table a few more times.


    “If you bite someone, do they become a vampire?”


    Allison almost spit out her water.  She should have known this was coming, Lucifer apparently did.  The real question was, could she say no in the heat of the moment.  She answered herself, and it was a firm, yes, she’d definitely take a drink.  She took a few seconds to clear her throat and then answered her with a soft whisper.


    “No, not even if a full vampire bit you…  I think you have to die for it to work… that way.”


    Zelda leaned closer.


    “My parents aren’t going to be home tonight.”


    Allison tugged on the collar of her armor and started to blush.


    “I really don’t think me, and you, being alone together… would be a good idea.  You know… you’ve had a traumatic few days and I wouldn’t want to take advantage of you… or anything like that.”


    Zelda inched closer and gave her the cutest look.


    “Please?  Being bitten by a vampire is like number one on my list of things I want to do, now that I know you exist.  Number two is becoming one…”


    Allison desperately wanted to say no, but perhaps it was Lucifer’s influence, or perhaps she was just low on willpower after having to fight for control of her body and mind.


    “Okay.”


    Zelda bounced a bit.  Allison figured she could be a little late returning to her ship.  To say the rest of the day dragged on for the pair of girls would be an understatement.  Zelda rushed Allison to her house and as they entered Zelda called out.


    “Sleep mode!”


    The robot servant shut down and Zelda pulled off her jacket and tossed it aside, then her tie.  She pressed Allison against the wall and kissed her.  Allison was caught up in the mood and kissed her back.  Zelda tried to pull off Allison’s uniform jacket, but her hands found nothing.  Allison turned off her hologram and undid the seam of her armor.  Zelda continued to shed clothes until the pair collapsed onto the bed together in their underwear.  Hands roamed while lips met for passionate kisses.  Allison was on the bottom and Zelda looked down at her friend whose fangs were out by now.


    “Bite me.”


    Allison grinned and pushed Zelda onto her back.  She kissed Zelda’s lips, then down her cheek and when her lips reached the girl’s pale neck, she opened her mouth wide, and she sunk her fangs in.  Zelda had a moment of existential terror, but it passed as the natural endorphins in Allison’s saliva flooded her brain then she gasped with pleasure.  Allison got lost in Zelda’s blood.  She bit harder to get more blood, faster but then she retreated, realizing she could kill Zelda.  She always wanted more, and it was never enough, especially when drinking from a sentient being.  The wound on Zelda’s neck stitched itself together leaving only a couple of trickles of blood as evidence of her indiscretion.  Zelda lay there with her eyes closed.  The girl was struggling to get her ragged breaths under control.  It took time for the vampiric saliva’s effects to wear off so Zelda was still vibrating.  Allison collapsed beside her struggling with the sensations caused by Zelda’s heady blood.  It took several minutes for the girls to recover.  Zelda spoke first.


    “That was… amazing.  Do it again?”


    Allison was still trying to catch her breath.  She waved her arm and shook her head while holding her abdomen.


    “If I take much more, you’ll need a transfusion.”


    Zelda rolled onto her side and looked at Allison with dreamy eyes.


    “Couldn’t you just sink your fangs in and not drink?”


    Allison shook her head.


    “No, I am really bad at stopping.”


    Zelda pouted but relented.


    “Hey, did I taste good?”


    Allison looked at Zelda and realized she could see an aura of color around her, mostly it was a hot pink color and it was bright… really bright..


    “You tasted like color?  So uh, when you’re looking at someone’s aura… what’s hot pink mean?”


    Zelda slid her finger along Allison’s bare abdomen.


    “That they want to do… what we’re doing right now.  Both of yours are almost blinding… The brighter it is the more intense the emotion.  Why do you ask?”


    Allison blushed.


    “Because I see how bright yours is.”


    Zelda leaned in closer and their chests pressed against each other as Zelda’s lips met Allison’s.


    “Wait, drinking my blood gave you my ability?”


    Allison returned the kiss reflexively but it lacked the passion of their initial make out session.  With her bloodlust at least temporarily sated her more natural urges kicked in and Zelda lacked the equipment for what she preferred.


    “Umm, I guess so.  Look, I really didn’t mean to give you the wrong impression… but umm, I’m not into… other girls.  I like to say I’m bloodsexual, if you have blood, I like to drink it but… once it gets further then that uh, I’m not really comfortable.  Do you understand?”


    Zelda pouted and flopped back on her pillow.


    “I understand.  Sorry if I made you uncomfortable, I just thought… since you kissed me back…”


    Allison blushed.


    “I really wanted to bite you and blood, sex… it’s like this twisted little bundle of mixed up feelings.  Once I drink my head kind of clears and I realize what I’m doing.”


    Zelda propped her head up on her hand and looked at Allison again.


    “Are you sure, your aura is telling me you are ready to go.”


    Allison blushed.


    “That’s because you still have a lot of blood in you, and I can smell it along with your uh pheromones.”


    Allison’s fangs were still out and likely would be until she could get some distance from her friend or at least get some clothes on her.  Zelda sighed before reaching out and slid her finger along Allison’s cheek and finally found her fang.


    “They’re cute.  Are they small because you’re only half vampire, or are all vampires fangs that small?”


    Allison shrugged.


    “I don’t know, never seen a vampire, vamp out before, wait, no that’s a lie, Helen was pretty feral when she first woke up… I don’t remember how big her fangs were though.  I was more worried about other things.”


    Zelda pulled her hand back and looked at the impression Allison’s fang had left on it.


    “Are vampires anything like they are on Twilight?”


    Allison shrugged.


    “Well, they can’t go out in the sun… well without some amulet thingy.  Helen told me about them, but it didn’t seem too important at the time so I kind of tuned her out.  I’m stronger and faster, like really strong and fast if I don’t hold myself back but when I went all out I kind of ripped my muscles away from my bones tore my tendons and broke my bones.  I can only imagine what a vampire could do since they’re dead and don’t have to worry about damaging themselves.  Oh, and I heal fast, vampires heal faster.”


    Zelda laid back and stared at her ceiling.


    “Could you imagine being reborn as the ultimate predator?  Being immortal?  Never growing old…  Never getting sick…”


    Allison shrugged.


    “Not really something I’d want I like the sun too much.”


    Zelda looked at the blackout curtain.


    “I don’t.  I hate it.  If I never saw it again, I’d be happy… How does one become a vampire?”


    Allison wasn’t exactly sure on that one.  She vaguely recalled some law about getting permission, she definitely knew being under twenty-one was a non-starter.


    “I really don’t know.  Something about getting drained to the point of death and being fed blood or something.  It’s not like you could get turned.  One you’re like, not living on Earth and two… you’re my age, no kid vampires that’s been a rule since vampires have existed I think.”


    “Why?”


    Allison looked at Zelda.


    “Why would you want to be one?  You’d never grow up.  You’re stuck how you are when you’re turned.  So like you’d be stuck with a teenage brain, teenage body… no thanks.  Or worse, could you imagine an eight year old…  Isis told me something else about them… like they turn into corrupted blood-crazed monsters.  I think she called them a, sti… no strix.  Yes, that’s it.”


    “Who is Isis?”


    Allison looked up at the ceiling.


    “She’s a ten thousand year old vampire… maybe its eleven thousand now… I guess it doesn’t matter once you get that old.  She’s the reason I have golden eyes and that I’m a dhampir.  My biological mother had to go away so she had me transferred to Isis’s womb… Isis being a vampire my body became infused with her blood.”


    Zelda looked at Allison again.


    “What is she like?”


    Allison bit her lower lip.


    “You know it is hard to explain.  Like if you look at her she looks like she’s made of marble she’s so white and her eyes, it is like she see’s right through you.  She tries to pretend she has like strong feelings but she doesn’t.  It is like she’s a living statue.  Hard and unforgiving.  I mean she has a daughter and I think she loves her, but like, her love is odd.  It is like she has forgotten how to be human.”


    “Are all old vampires like that?”


    Allison shrugged.


    “I don’t know, my Aunt Maria is three thousand years old and she kind of looks like she just got up from her own funeral but she is really human, and my sister Eyre, she is so passionate.  Helen’s pretty young, only like a hundred years awake or something like that she’s really human but she has a really strong sense of duty.  Vampires are people and that makes them all different individuals.  Like Master Sergent Lance, she’s like two hundred years old and she’s like a career soldier.  I don’t think she’s ever worn a dress.  And Eyre really likes to shop… and shop and shop.  One of my other sisters is like an anti-corp eco-terrorist also a vampire, and like my family literally owns the biggest corp in the System’s Alliance…  I have a strange birth family.  It is actually sad how little I know about vampires since like if my sister Eyre dies I’ll be their Empress.”


    Zelda sat up and looked at her.


    “What?”


    Allison sighed.


    “So, like the vampires are ruled by the Imperial Council and my biological grandfather was the first vampire so, my biological mother was empress and when she umm, left my oldest sister took over and when she leaves… dies, goes to sleep forever whatever they do it will be me.  Normally since I’m not a vampire I couldn’t but they went and voted that dhampir’s had all the same restrictions, rights and privileges as vampires so now I’m on the hook.  And if I can avoid that, now some crazy femnazi empire wants me to be their Empress… I hate my life sometimes.  Six months ago my biggest problem was I wanted a motorcycle and my mom didn’t want me to get one also that my boyfriend was an abusive ass… but like… normal stuff.”


    Zelda put her hand on Allison’s shoulder and just listened to her friend rant.  Allison’s rant about how abnormal her life was got cut short when she got a comm from Widow. She quickly switched her end of the holo stream before answering.


    “Widow?  What’s wrong?”


    Widow looked rather annoyed at her.


    “Your Aunt and Uncle are ready to be woken up… you were supposed to be here half an hour ago.”


    Allison scrambled for an excuse.


    “Ah, I forgot, was working on some homework with my friend.  I’ll be right there.”


    Widow nodded.


    “Sure, homework, we have a transporter lock on you.”


    Allison bolted up and grabbed her armor and started tugging it on while delaying Widow.  She tried to straighten her hair out but failed.  She’d barely managed to grab her school bag before she was standing in the Ark Royal’s new transporter room.  It had walls and everything.  Widow had her arms crossed still and pointed at Allison’s chin.


    “You missed some.”


    Allison blushed and quickly tried to clean up the blood that had trickled out of the corner of her lips during her feeding on Zelda.