Note: I accidentally skipped a chapter! Here's a double update to make up for it!

---

Work the next morning couldn’t come soon enough.

Sophie was full of energy when she arrived. It was the longest time she’d had to recuperate since being accosted by Mikhail last Saturday and she felt refreshed. The meal last night had been wonderfully reenergizing and the restaurant had been great, Mikhail’s unwanted presence and the awkward conversation notwithstanding. She had shoved the forced kiss from her mind, just as she’d promised herself she would do with all of his unwanted sexual advances. The feelings of disgust still coursed through her body, but she did her best to ignore them.

Despite immensely disliking interactions with him in any way, Sophie felt she’d received more information than ever could have hoped for. She didn’t feel like she had been very successful when she’d tried asking her own questions, although he had answered them semi-helpfully and didn’t seem to have suspected anything. He had been more interested her actual self for some strange reason—there was no reason for their connection besides her blood and the other things she wouldn’t mention, not even in the recesses of her mind.

Her shift started earlier than usual, catering more to the breakfast rush than her usual lunchtime shift. She figured that Ashley wouldn’t be there for a while, but when eleven o’clock came around and Ashley wasn’t there, Sophie became nervous that something had happened to her. There was the possibility that it was related to Mikhail and the ongoing threat he posed, and she anxiously went to check the schedule to make sure her best friend was coming in at all. She couldn’t risk seeing her outside of work anymore given that Mikhail could possibly follow them and overhear their incriminating conversations. That simply couldn’t happen.

However, it turned out Ashley was due to come in at three in the afternoon and she showed up promptly at that time in the customary blue waitress uniform. Sophie gave her a meaningful look when their eyes met as Ashley headed to the back to clock-in and her friend nodded in return. Unfortunately, since Ashley had come in so late, the blonde would be hard-pressed to get a reasonable length of time to speak to her before she had to leave to avoid suspicion. After Mikhail had watched her leave work these past few days she had no idea how much he knew about her work schedule. She wasn’t willing to risk anything.

Luckily, Ashley convinced Mr. Tiller to let her have a break at four, which was when Sophie got off. They met up in the back, where they waited patiently for Callie to pack up her things after her shift.

“You two certainly are close, aren’t you?” Callie observed casually after she had changed into a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt that did nothing to disguise her voluptuous figure. “Always back here, being so secretive.”

Sophie winced at the observation, but Ashley just shrugged. “I’m having guy problems and breaks are the best time to discuss them. Lord knows he hogs up the rest of my free time.”

Callie gave a wry smile and only shook her head before waving and leaving. Sophie slumped into her chair, relieved, after the older woman was gone.

“Nice save,” she said, smiling. “But have we never really spent so much time together here? I mean, you’re my best friend.”

Ashley grinned, but it was half-hearted. “We’ve never not been able to talk about things outside of work before.”

“Ha… yeah,” Sophie replied weakly. Then she perked up a little. “I have news.”

“Already?” Ashley’s eyebrows rose.

“Well, last night he said that I haven’t been taking care of myself and took me out to dinner.”

Ashley’s expression was skeptical. “Really? So far that seems way out of character. From what I can tell, taking his food out to dinner isn’t exactly his M.O.”

Sophie shook her head. “Not at all. I was surprised, too, but it worked in our favor. He actually wanted to… talk? I don’t think you could really call it a conversation, but it gave me some time to pry.”

Her friend motioned for her to go on. Sophie took a deep breath, steeling herself before she had to relive the experience. It hadn’t been terrible—the only thing she really had to block out was that kiss.

“It didn’t really go well asking questions, but I don’t think he suspected anything. He’s over three hundred!” Her voice took on a frightened tone. “He said three-hundred and forty-seven in… November, I think.” Ashley’s eyes widened and Sophie nodded in agreement. “I know, I can’t even fathom being that old. He, uh, also said that it’s unusual for him to leave victims alive afterward, and that as long as I remain ‘useful,’ he’ll let me live.”

Ashley’s eyebrows furrowed. “That’s not exactly good. Did he tell you why he’s decided to keep you alive?”

The blonde frowned. “He said my blood was ‘particularly exquisite’… ”

“And your body is pleasing, as well.”

Blood rushed to her face and she turned away from Ashley’s watchful eyes.

“-and that’s all,” she rushed.

Ashley frowned and there was a knowing look her eyes.

“He’s not using you for-”

“No!” But it was too hurried of a response to make it a decent lie. “No,” she repeated, clearing her throat nervously. “No, not that at all. Just, uh, yeah. My blood.”

Ashley frowned deeply but clearly understood that Sophie did not want to talk about it. When she went on, even though the look on her face told her that once again, Sophie was a horrible liar, it wasn’t on the same subject.

“So, you’re his meal ticket basically because apparently you taste really good,” Ashley said flatly. “And he doesn’t usually keep his victims alive, but you taste so good that he’s willing to make you a serious liability. I don’t know, Soph, but I think we’re missing something big here.”

Sophie went pale. “There’s nothing else. Anything else he said wasn’t too important as far as the situation goes. He’s mean, arrogant, and extremely condescending. And unfortunately, he’s also kind of intelligent.”

“It’s to be expected if someone’s lived that long,” Ashley replied. “Even as a vampire. Just because they’re at the top of the food chain doesn’t mean that surviving is easy—especially because their greatest strength is that the general populace doesn’t know they exist. If everyone suddenly realized vampires existed, there’d be mass chaos.”

“But wouldn’t everyone just want to hunt them down? With enough of us in it, we could get rid of them altogether.”

Ashley sighed. “It’s not that simple. I asked Jared about it recently because I was trying to figure out a solution for you and he said that there are law enforcers and politicians who know about vampires. It’s really hush-hush, of course, but people in power do know about them. They’ve made the conscious decision to not say anything.” The tone of her voice was not happy.

Rage slammed into Sophie like a tidal wave. “Why not?” she demanded. “I wouldn’t be in this whole mess if-”

“No, it’d be worse,” Ashley cut off seriously. She sounded even more unhappy now. “Those people are smart not to say anything.”

“I don’t think I understand,” Sophie replied hotly. “Letting innocent people die because of why?”

“Sophie… ” Ashley exhaled harshly as she struggled to explain the situation. “As far as being at the top of the food chain goes, vampires haven’t been very ambitious. Do you know how easily they could take over the world if enough of them decided they wanted to? Because vampires are notoriously independent and usually only stay in small groups because it makes life easier, there probably isn’t a coven large enough to do anything drastic.”

“… Coven?” Sophie asked.

“It’s what a group of vampires is called, I guess. Like a murder of crows or a flock of sheep. I don’t know, really, but that’s what Jared says. He’s in one. Anyways, depending on how strong the vampire is, they can pose a serious threat in a fight. Get enough of those really strong vampires together and that’s a war we might actually lose.”

The realization hit Sophie pretty hard. “You mean… vampires could take over the world?”

Ashley shook her head. “I don’t know, maybe. But that’s the thing—there hasn’t been any reason to because things work just the way they are. Jared told me that vampire hunter guilds do exist to keep the vampire population from overwhelming us, but anyone who knows about vampires and goes to the police is usually sworn to silence. The way things are now works in terms of the greater good.”

“So you’re telling me… ” Sophie was disbelieving. “If I were to go to the police, I’d just be told to keep quiet?”

“I don’t know about your situation specifically. The fact that your life is in danger and you’re going through something akin to torture, they might contact a guild. But… ” Ashley sounded miserable, apparently not convinced by even her own words.

Hope fluttered through her momentarily before it wilted. “But he’s threatened Kenneth and Dean’s lives and if he caught wind of what I was doing, I just know it wouldn’t end well. I’m not willing to take that risk.”

Ashley frowned. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

“And so the people that are killed—what happens to their families? Are they lied to?”

“I suppose so.”

Sophie flushed in anger. “That’s despicable. This whole thing is just disgusting. People are being murdered and their families don’t even know-” She was brought to pause. “Wait a second. Ash, how are you allowed to know this stuff? If secrecy is so important for everyone, why did Jared tell you?”

Now Ashley was flushed, but for an entirely different reason. “I kind of… walked in on Jared feeding once. He had to tell me then, but he didn’t want to kill me. And it’s… up in the air about what he’s going to do about it. He might have to turn me.” Ashley’s eyes hardened. “You are the only person beside Jared who knows I know. You cannot say anything. We’ve been keeping it a secret and it can’t get out or I might be forced to be turned.”

Sophie’s eyes widened and the anger rushed out of her. “No! You can’t become a-”

“I’m hoping it won’t come to that. You can’t tell anyone.”

“On my mother’s grave,” Sophie swore. “I promise.”

 Ashley smiled weakly before forcibly changing the subject. “Well, we still need more information. But now that Jared has told me about the guilds, there’s a chance we can contact one on our own and they can do something about it. Even though they’re technically there to just cull the population, some are really determined to just get rid of all of them. That’s preferable for everyone, I think, but only of few guilds apparently try for that extent.”

“Would Jared know any of them?”

Ashley snorted. “No. He’s a vampire, remember? He has no business with guilds.”

“Of course not,” Sophie said with a sigh. Then her eyes found the clock. “Oh, Ash, you’d better get something to eat. Your break’s almost over and I need to get going in case… he’s watching.”

Ashley nodded. “Yeah, definitely. Keep trying to get information, okay?”

Sophie nodded. “Absolutely.”

They embraced and Sophie hurried to leave. On her way out the door, Sophie’s cell phone rang. It was Kenneth and it turned out that he and Dean wanted to come over to plan a mutual friend’s surprise birthday party. Warily, Sophie agreed on the stipulation that it could only be a little while.

Thankfully, she didn’t get the feeling she was being watched at all on her way home and for once she felt a measure of safety. Daytime hours were now the equivalent of a women’s shelter for her.

Not long after she got home, Kenneth and Dean arrived, and Sophie allowed herself to be lost in the normalcy.