When she came to this time, she felt curiously light. Her weight was no longer tugging at her nailed arms. Had she been freed? She tried to move and quickly realized that no, she was still nailed. But why, then...

...the woman was holding her. Her cool, silky embrace lifted her, held her up so she could breathe freely again for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. Strange, she hadn't seemed that tall...but thought was getting difficult. The ocean was roaring in her head, the darkness crept in again from the edges of her vision.

"Do you still wish to live?", the visitor asked softly, her face like a poet's dream, now inches from hers. There were spices in her scent, her cool clean breath so different from a man's...

"Ye...yes." Damn it all, she did. She wanted to feel that woman's kiss again, wanted to linger in her embrace, melt away in her arms. Nothing else mattered, not the pain nor the grief. Only her, only life.

"Whatever the cost?", the woman asked, all playfulness suddenly gone from her voice.

"Any...anything."

Camilla meant it. Truly meant it. Whatever it took, she would give it gladly to live another agonized heartbeat in that embrace.

The woman smiled, yet there was a hint of sadness in it.

"Good. Now relax...close your eyes"

Camilla did as she was told, felt the woman gently kiss her cheek, move down from there, to her jawline...it felt so good, more please, she thought...her neck. There was a burst of pain, a moment of terror, and then...nothing.

…

Gradually she became aware that she was floating. There were no other sensations, no feeling at all, just that impression of gently drifting in a weightless void. As the first sluggish thoughts began to form in her reawakening mind, she noticed that there was light above. Above? There was no weight here to tell her what was above and what was below. But somehow she knew that light was...up.

So this was death, Camilla thought, and wondered what came next. The underworld? The paradise that some of the cults promised? Or maybe she would just continue to float here, in perfect peace. That too would be good.

But something began to stir within her, and the light receded. Receded? No, she was moving away from it. Descending. Falling, falling into lightless depths. The underworld, then. Fear gripped her, and cold. So cold. She had no body she could feel but the cold still penetrated every fiber of her being. The light was gone, the void all around her. Within her. Yearning for something, anything, to fill it up. Gnawing at her, a hunger beyond anything she had ever felt. There was nothing left, just the void and the cold and the hunger and then...

...there was something. Hot and red and so close, she could smell it, taste it, drink it all up, feel it fill her, feel the heat of it become her own...

…

She opened her eyes, the hunger receding but never quite gone. She was kneeling over something soft and wet...

Camilla realized she was looking down at a man. No, a thing that had been a man. The throat had been torn open, blood had soaked through the tunic and covered the face, which was frozen in a grimace of pain and horror.

If it hadn't been for that shock of red hair, she would not have recognized Marcellus Rufo anymore. Unconsciously, she licked her lips, getting more of that metallic taste.

A noise made her look up. There, in the light of countless candles, hung a figure, bound and gagged, held up by a rope around his feet. He was naked, his cock and balls looking comical as he hung upside down. Antius whimpered into his gag.

"Oh, do shut up", a familiar voice playfully chided him. Camilla saw her now more clearly than ever. The stranger was naked too, sitting on a couch underneath her terrified captive with a cup in her hand. She drank in the sight of those perfect breasts, those legs, the promise of ecstasy between them...and the fangs in that perfect smile.

"What..." she stopped again, surprised that she could speak once more. "What happened? What..."

Camilla held up her arms in front of her. The wounds in her wrist were almost healed. She knew somehow that soon not a trace of them would remain. She felt healthy, strong, full of energy. Not a trace of fatigue remained. None of the little aches and twinges you never noticed in your daily life but which were always there.

She was free of it all. And all it had taken was...

...another's blood coursing through her own body. Understanding began to take shape.

"We can deal with all of that later, my dear", the stranger said. No, not a stranger. She knew with unshakeable certainty that this was no stranger. Across the very fabric of her soul was painted a single word:

"Mistress..."

The elder vampire laughed. "No need for any of that silliness in private!"

"In...private?" Camilla asked, glancing at the bound and trembling legionaire dangling from the ceiling. He looked so small and frail now, and she wondered how he'd managed to loom so large over her before.

"Oh, he won't be with us much longer." Her mistress picked up a slim-bladed knife with a silver handle, raised herself from her reclining pose and brought it to Antius' throat. The man tried to scream through his gag and began to thrash around but she simply took hold of his hair and held him still with inexorable strength.

"Goodbye, Antius", she said as she dragged the razor edge across his throat. Blood, hot and red and full of life ran down, flowed all over the Mistress. She held out her cup to catch some, but far more splashed all over her as her victim struggled in his death throes. It ran down her breasts, down past her navel and pooled briefly between her legs. She opened them wide then, revealing herself fully to Camilla.

"It's time you repaid the favor, don't you think?"

Camilla knew that there was no way for her to disobey the command as she got on her knees in front of her Mistress, the scent of blood mixing with that of incense and the spice of her perfume…

Not that she wanted to, she realized as she laid kiss upon kiss on that gate of paradise, her Mistress' soft yet strong hands stroking her hair, her first moans like the sweetest music, and drank deep of blood like wine.