Ruqwik closed the distance between them and cupped her cheek. Hadley held her breath in agonising anticipation.

"Breathe," Ruq whispered.

The word was a warm exhale against Hadley's ear that untangled countless knots of nerves inside her. She breathed. Shakily at first, then steadier.

Hadley closed her eyes, focussing on her breath.

Ruqwik's fangs grazed Hadley's neck. Visions of Ruqwik tearing through dogs and killing a vampire without touching him flashed behind Hadley's closed eyes. She was suddenly afraid. She tried to push down the fear. Shove it into the darkness of her mind. This was the right...

Hadley's terror-filled thoughts suddenly cut off.

A new feeling immediately replaced it, building up inside her.

The feeling started at the base of her stomach. Butterflies. Confetti. Warmth. Her breath hitched as she felt the warmth spread through her, lower and lower, past her navel, to the top of her pelvis. And lower still...

"Wait! Stop. Just... hold on," Hadley said, breaking the spell.

Ruqwik pulled her fangs out. Hadley took a step back. She almost jumped the vampire and ravaged her right there and then, but instead, she took another unsteady step back and wrangled with her sudden desperate, licentious feelings. Vivid thoughts of her and the vampire tousling naked on the forest floor were making it hard to think.

Hard to breath.

"Did I hurt you?" Ruqwik asked. Hadley looked up at her. The vampire's eyes were halfway open, filled with the same feelings coursing through Hadley, which acted as extra fuel dousing Hadley's own lust.

"What are you doing?" Hadley asked, breathlessly.

Ruqwik closed her eyes. She was struggling for control too.

"I accessed a part of your mind... you were... afraid... I wanted to help you... relax?" the vampire started to explain, struggling to find the right words.

"You're turning me on." Hadley said. She took another deep breath to centre herself. "You didn't do that before."

The feeding in the forest – that first time they'd met – had been quick and painless.

Emotionless.

"I... didn't want you to be afraid of me." Ruqwik whispered, her voice pleading with Hadley to understand.

Hadley's heart was threatening to jump up and out of her throat and walk away. But the fear was fighting with another feeling. A sense of connection that beat all logic. Ruqwik needed her. And she needed the vampire too. It made no sense why this would be true, but it was etched into Hadley's very soul.

And it was about a lot more than just blood.

"I'm not afraid of you, Ruq," Hadley said. It wasn't the whole truth, but it wasn't a complete lie either. "You don't need to reach into my mind to force me not to be."

Ruqwik shifted her weight and turned away, as if embarassed. She nodded and turned around to walk back to camp.

Hadley sighed.

She wasn't thrilled with what had just happened, but this was about more than her feelings. Especially feelings that would disappear into the darkness in her mind before she knew it. Ruqwik was hiding her Venom identity for a reason. Hadley suspected it would harm the vampire if the secret was out, and the thought of Ruqwik being harmed in any way turned Hadley's insides into a twisted ball of mangled metal.

Once again, Hadley reached for Ruqwik's shoulder to stop her. "Wait."

The vampire stopped but didn't turn to face her.

"I still want to help," Hadley said. "Just... don't... you know..."

It took a whole minute before Ruqwik turned around.

"Your arm," the vampire said, finally facing Hadley.

"What?" Hadley asked.

Ruqwik gently took Hadley's hand in hers. "It'll be less... distracting."

Less intimate.

Hadley nodded and allowed the vampire to sink her fangs into her forearm to feed. It might not have had the intimacy of feeding from her neck, but Hadley still sensed that intense, irrational sense of connection, feeling it grow even stronger. When she was done, Ruqwik licked the wound and Hadley watched it close, a strange feeling of skin knitting back together. Ruqwik lingered over the closing wound. Hadley was sure she was going to kiss her. The anticipation was slowly incinerating the willpower she'd built up that stopped her from giving her body to the vampire.

But Ruqwik didn't kiss her.

Hadley resisted giving a sigh of relief.

She wouldn't have survived a kiss.

"Better?" Hadley asked with a smile, banishing the all-consuming salacious thoughts from her mind.

Ruq smiled back. "Much."

*

It was the next morning.

From the corner of her eye, Hadley saw Ruq walking over to her. Or felt her. It was hard to tell, and that was another reason her insides shrivelled up. Ever since Ruq's feeding the night before, Hadley hadn't been able to get the vampire out of her head. Literally. It felt like Ruq was still in there, pressing her buttons. She couldn't trust a single thought. She was hoping the feeling would go away if she kept her distance from the vampire and had been dreading this moment. It was inevitable that Ruq would seek her out, but Hadley could barely bring herself to look at the vampire.

Something had changed last night.

A line crossed.

And Hadley didn't want to deal with what that meant.

Relief washed over her when the children ambushed Ruqwik on her way over.

"Did you hear what I said?" Jamila asked Hadley.

This whole time, Jamila had been braiding Hadley's hair. Hadley tilted her head to the side to face her. If Hadley was told that she needed to repeat exactly what Jamila had said or die, she would just ask for a shovel and start digging.

"Yeah! Of course, I did," Hadley replied with a smile.

"And it's a good plan, right?" Jamila said with one of those dazzling smiles of hers.

"It's an excellent plan," Hadley replied.

It was Jamila. Whatever plan it was, it was a good one.

"That's great that you think so! Because..." Jamila beamed. She continued talking.

Hadley's mind floated away from the conversation again and wandered back to last night. She couldn't stop thinking about it. About how it had felt when Ruq had...

Damn!

The vampire's intrusion into Hadley's mind had messed her up like nothing else. The feelings Ruq had stoked up had been impossible to shake! Afterwards, when they were settling down for the night, Hadley found herself aimlessly walking around the camp, pretending to check on everyone, but the truth was that she'd been way too restless to even think of falling asleep. About an hour later, Hadley had found herself finally slipping under the tablecloths next to Jamila with the aim of forcing herself to fall asleep. The golden eyed beauty was already asleep by then. Hadley thought they could just spoon, and she'd count her breaths, and that would be enough to lull herself to sleep.

It hadn't been.

Not even close.

In the end, Hadley had grown too antsy. Too uncomfortable. Felt like she was about to spontaneously combust.

"Can I help?" Hadley had opened her eyes to find Jamila looking at her in the dark, her eyes half open and strands of her wavy hair falling across her face. She looked ethereal as a ray of moonlight found its way through the trees and onto her face.

Jamila's words eventually registered, and Hadley realised that she had one hand on her left breast and the other in her underwear, trying to find some much-needed release. She hadn't been able to keep silent the shaky breaths that had escaped her as she'd tried to tip herself over the edge. Hadley smiled sheepishly. She was about to apologize for waking Jamila but stopped herself. Instead, she gave a little nod as her answer to Jamila's question.

Jamila had kissed her then. A slow, languorous kiss. It doused a bit of the fire inside her, but Hadley wanted more. Needed more. Jamila's hand cupped her breast and squeezed, ever so slightly. Hadley moaned into the kiss. Yes. More. The fingers that had been cupping her breast now squeezed the nipple. Hadley was getting closer and closer to the edge. Oh. Please. Just a little bit more. Jamila released her breast and gently lowered her hand, dipping into Hadley's panties. Hadley gasped. Her desperation for Jamila's touch was overwhelming.

Jamila ran achingly slow circles around Hadley's lips. Then around her core. Hadley couldn't stop the moans, though she did try to keep them quiet, not wanting to wake up anyone else around them. She was so close now. Jamila gently rubbed her clit, sending Hadley's mind into a tailspin. So, so close. Jamila slipped inside her. Hadley's back arched, begging for more. The stroking started slow, Jamila gradually increasing the pace to match Hadley's hip thrusts. Her fingers curled and she hit the spot. Every part of Hadley shattered as she gave herself to the rush of pleasure.

Her breathing was ragged as she came back down. Jamila softly kissed her, before nuzzling her neck and pulling her close for a spooning cuddle. Hadley finally, thankfully, felt fatigue wash over her. She was asleep before she knew she'd closed her eyes, the fire that Ruqwik had started inside her finally extinguished.

Then morning arrived and Hadley was determined to avoid being alone with Ruq. If Hadley had any say in it, she was going to make sure that she would never be alone with the vampire, ever again.

Yet, here was Ruq, having escaped the ring of children, walking up to them and asking Jamila to let her speak to Hadley alone for a moment. Jamila finished the braid she was working on, gave Hadley a lingering kiss on the lips, then excused herself.

"I was hoping we could talk. About last night. I wanted to apologize for..." Ruq was saying.

Hadley cut her off.

"How does it work?" Hadley said in a clipped tone. "Can you just make me feel whatever you want to, any time that you want to?"

Ruqwik stayed silent for a beat too long.

"No, Hadley. I can't make you feel anything," she finally replied. "I can only heighten or diminish the intensity of whatever's already there."

Hadley wanted to look away because of what that implied about last night, but she kept her eyes on Ruqwik. The angular jawline, the prominent cheek bones, straight nose, unruly dirty blonde hair, blood red eyes. And that invisible thing simmering underneath it all, connecting them like arms of intertwining branches reaching out from the vampire and wrapping themselves around Hadley. She might not have been able to see it, but she could feel it growing around them with every passing minute after the feeding last night.

"Is that something you take the liberty of doing to people whenever you want?" Hadley asked, surprised that she was a little nervous of the answer.

"My telepathy can reach most humans and all vampires," Ruqwik said in a calm voice. "But it's different with you. This thing between us... I don't have anything like this with anyone else."

Hadley tried to ignore the intense relief that washed over her at that answer.

"Why me?"

"It's... a little complicated." The vampire said. "Difficult to explain."

"Try."

Ruqwik took a moment before she answered, getting comfortable next to Hadley. She looked at the ground between her feet and sighed.

"Vampires are immortal beings. It's their nature and prerogative to live forever and make sure that nothing ever threatens that. When a vampire is about to die, their mind will try to keep them alive against all odds. If they're powerful enough, their telepathy reaches out for the nearest mind and attempts to integrate with it. Like a drowning man clutching at a straw. If the vampire dies, the process ceases and nothing consequential comes from it. But if the vampire somehow ends up surviving the near-death experience, the process continues, and a telepathic link is consolidated between the two minds. Like the drowning man never letting go of the straw after he somehow survives." Ruqwik explained.

Hadley took a moment to process that.

"When we were attacked at the Compound," Hadley said, her voice low and pensive. "I put you back together. You survived death."

"Yes. You started the ritual that now links us." Ruqwik confirmed.

"My mind is bound to yours?"

"It's more the other way around. Mine bound to yours."

"What does that even mean?"

"If anything happens to you that is bad enough to sever the link, usually death," Ruqwik said, taking a moment to let that sink in before continuing. "My mind would snap back to that moment when the link was established. I'd be drowning again. Alone this time, without a straw. And I'd most certainly lose my mind."

Hadley looked at Ruqwik. She was still staring at the ground. The vampire kept talking.

"That is how a ghoul, or zombie, is created. An undead creature with the sole purpose of imposing its madness onto others in an attempt to find peace again," Ruqwik continued. "Because a body and mind that's evolved to be immortal isn't equipped to deal with having walked through death's door and then walked back out somehow."

"You called it a ritual," Hadley said. Ruqwik's use of the word had caught her by surprise. "Like it's something that's purposefully done."

Ruqwik nodded.

"When a Master sires a human, they purposefully trigger the formation of the link during the Turn, between them and the human they're turning," Ruq said. "The more humans you Sire, the more links you create. After the human is turned, they become immortal too, making it near impossible for the link to ever break. Again, the more humans you Sire and turn, the less likely it is for all the links to be simultaneously severed. As long as a single link is still functional, there's no chance of a ghoul being accidentally created and starting a zombie apocalypse. It's why all Vampires are encouraged, almost forced, to become Masters when they grow strong enough."

"But... you're not a Master," Hadley said, horror breaking her voice. "No!"

Hadley wanted to throw up. This was too much of a load to carry on her shoulders. Sure, it had happened by accident, but it was still a horrible situation they were in! Ruqwik didn't have to say it. Hadley was only human. Fragile. In the middle of the jungle with an untold number of fatal possibilities all around them. Anything could happen to her at any time. She'd accepted that possibility from the moment she had decided to leave the Compound. Chosen that it was a sacrifice worth making for a life that her daughter deserved, in freedom with the Wildlings!

But if anything happened to her now...

"Why didn't you tell me this before!" Hadley demanded.

"Would that have been before I got my head ripped off by a monstrous abomination that isn't even supposed to exist? Or after?" Ruqwik shot back just as hard.

Hadley knew they were both more afraid than they were angry. Heck, she could feel the terror seep out of Ruqwik as the vampire's power suddenly swirled around them. It was as if having verbally confirmed what was going on had broken Ruqwik. Like none of this had been true until that very moment when she'd said it all out loud. Hadley reached out and touched the vampire's shoulder.

"Hey," Hadley said in a low, calming voice. "Nothing is going to happen to me."

Okay. So maybe that was a bit of a lie considering that they currently lived in a world of vampire dogs, Master vamps wanting to kill Ruqwik to possess her Enclave, and deadly rainforest elements like the weather, hunger, disease, poison, infection and who knows what else?

Ruqwik turned to her, about to say something. The look in Ruqwik's eyes told Hadley that the vampire was about to point out the thoughts that had whizzed by her own mind. To point out the glaringly obvious way they could fix this. The one way the ritual could be completed.

And Hadley wasn't having any of that!

So, to keep the vampire from saying it, Hadley kissed her.

It wasn't the feelings that exploded inside Hadley that surprised her. She already knew about those. About how they'd been bubbling under the surface from the first time they'd met. Ruqwik's words reverberated inside her, 'I can only heighten or diminish what's already there'. Somewhere inside, Hadley had known that too. So, no. It wasn't the emotion from the kiss that surprised her.

It was the kiss itself.

Hadley's eyes flew open at the softness of Ruqwik's lips. The vampire's eyes were closed. She didn't move, waiting for Hadley to decide what happened next. Hadley closed her eyes again. She raised her hands to Ruqwik's cheek, reaching to the back of her neck, her fingers combing through the vampire's soft hair, and pressing them closer. Ruq was warm to the touch. Hadley's breath hitched at the realisation, her heartbeat sounding loud. Then it suddenly felt too fast, and she almost stopped the kiss. Until she realised that it wasn't her heart. Ruqwik's pulse was buzzing through her. In her ears. Through her fingers. Hadley felt wired to the marrow of her bones. To her brain.

Her heart.

Hadley stopped the kiss and pulled away. The intensity of emotion scared her.

Ruqwik looked at her and gave her a sad smile.

"You can't avoid talking about this by kissing me every single time I try to talk about it," Ruq said. "We have to discuss this. The ritual. I need to..."

Hadley cut her off with another kiss. It didn't last as long as the first, but the vampire got lost in it just the same.

"I think the kissing thing is working out pretty well," Hadley said, her voice barely audible and a tiny bit shaky.

"Hadley..." Ruq said, equally as breathless. "I won't stop trying to talk to you about this."

Hadley gave her a quick peck on the lips and smiled.

"Don't threaten me with a good time, Ruq." she said with a smirk.

Ruq sighed. The vampire wasn't going to get anywhere like this, and she knew it. She shook her head, stood up and walked away.

As Hadley watched the vampire leave, her mind was reeling! She'd had it all wrong! Everything. Given their grizzly nature, she'd always imagined vampires to be as hard and cold as stone. Like Ruqwik's hands were last night when she'd taken Hadley in her arms to feed. That they were heartless. Literally. But she'd been wrong. So wrong. They could be soft and warm and have a heart beating in their chest. Beating fast.

For her.

Alone again, Hadley was lost wondering how she'd arrived here, where she was deciding to cement her relationship with Jamila, where she'd slept with a man, and was now falling for a vampire while they were on the way to another vampire's settlement to find a new home for her daughter. Hadley reached into her harvest bag and fished out the little glass vial that held moist gauze and five apple seeds. Aunt Zee would have blown her casket knowing that Hadley was getting close to vampires. That her mind was bound to one.

Incapacitate and run.

That was all she had to do.

"I tried, Aunt Zee," Hadley whispered, rolling the vial in her fingers.

Hadley opened the vial, reached for her water bottle, and poured some water into the little vial until the gauze was soaked, but not dripping wet. She replaced the vial's lid and smiled at the rust-coloured seeds peeking out of the gauze.

"Do you want to finish packing?" Jamila asked, pulling Hadley from her thoughts.

Hadley looked up at the girl with golden eyes and smiled. She slipped the seeds back into her harvest bag. Sure, her plans had gone horribly wrong from the moment she'd taken her first step beyond the Compound walls, but if they hadn't, she wouldn't have had Jamila here with her. Wouldn't be looking forward to them raising their daughters together.

"Yeah. We should start getting everyone ready to leave if we want to make it before sunset." Hadley said, standing up to join Jamila.

Jamila nodded and they walked over to the others together.