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If she was being perfectly honest with herself, the only reason she hadn’t written back to Mother arguing against coming back home -- if one could truly call it home -- was that she knew without a shadow of a doubt that Mother would probably behead her if she did. A call back home was indisputable. You return promptly or be hunted down.
The messenger who had come for her was not a member of Mother’s family. No, it was some distant clan that had one or other ties to the cult. Carmilla often wondered how these messengers were always able to find her, no matter where she went in the world. She could be napping in the monks’ temples in Tibet, or wandering around the towering skyscrapers of New York, or taking a look at a streetside booth in Morocco, when someone would approach her with an envelope that bore Mother’s handwriting. The messengers rarely stayed to speak, and were gone as quickly as they’d arrived.
Today, she had been quietly enjoying herself in a small Polish inn when one of those same messengers appeared and then vanished. She didn’t even have enough time to finish her drink before it was time for her to start the journey home.
Why she was being forced to return was another question she wasn’t supposed to ask. It was still a few months until it would be time to return to Silas, although Mother must’ve come up with a task for her. Great. These random and frustratingly timed jobs were most-often irksome and pointless.
These fears were only confirmed when she descended the crumbling stone staircase into the musty, hot basement -- Carmilla knew that some of these vampires didn’t like to stray from seventeenth century living, but would it kill them to set up air conditioning? -- and saw the new addition to the fold.
“Please tell me that’s not what I think it is,” Carmilla groaned, even though she knew there was no use in hoping she was wrong.
“Carmilla, darling,” Mother said, feigning affection as she said her name. “Meet your new little sister, Laura.”
Standing between Mother and William was what Carmilla thought could probably be the tiniest girl she’d ever seen. (Carmilla has the vague notion that it wouldn’t take much to snap her in half.) She had long light brown hair, and was wearing a dark blue flannel shirt and jeans. Nothing separated her in appearance from any ordinary girl except for the icy look in her eyes, a mixture of the adrenaline-like substance now flowing through her veins instead of blood and the ravenous hunger of the newly-turned. This alone identified her as a vampire. She stood with her hands rigidly at her side, her eyes flickering uncertainly between the number of vampires in the room before coming to a rest on Carmilla.
Carmilla was sure she’d never been more irritated in her life, which was truly saying something. Were they no longer selective in who they turned? Would they bite anyone wandering around the streets at night?
“Is this a joke?” Carmilla said. “Do you guys just turn anyone into a vampire? Is it no longer necessary to see if they can hold their own?”
“I wouldn’t worry about that, dear. I believe she’ll be perfectly capable. William brought her to me,” Mother said, sending Will an approving look.
“Weren’t hungry enough to finish her off?” Carmilla quipped, turning to Will. “Useless moron.”
“You didn’t see the chop-socky crap she pulled on me, sis,” he said, giving a small chuckle.
“Victims who fight back must be so annoying,” Carmilla replied, then looked back at Mother. “What do you expect me to do?”
“The same that you did for William. Be her mentor. Mold her into a predator,” Mother said. “Whatever it takes, she’s your responsibility.”
Great.
“Where did the little weasel Willy find you?” Carmilla asked the girl as she led them out of the ruins of whatever crumbling old building Mother had decided would create the most ominous tension during meetings.
Laura shot her a mistrustful look before answering the question.
“My dad and I were touring Stockholm, visiting some relatives. I was on my way back from a party with my cousin when we got jumped and the next thing I knew I was waking up in an alley with that guy next to me and...” Laura said, the icy look leaving her eyes for a second as she said it. “Wait… where’s my cousin?!”
Carmilla gave a light laugh. “That depends. Was your cousin drunk?”
“It was a party. What do you think?”
“Well then, cupcake, I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s very hard for a vampire to get drunk. The only easy way is to drink an inebriated human,” Carmilla said. “Willy’s gang must’ve decided to have a bit of fun. Your cousin is dead.”
Laura clapped her hand to her mouth with a look of dawning horror on her face. Carmilla almost felt some sympathy for her, but this was how their world works. Death is an everyday occurrence and a necessity if you want to survive. The sooner Laura learned this, the sooner she’d get over it.
“So Willy-boy dragged you back to the cult’s hideaway, I take it?” Carmilla asked, trying to move things along as they walked further through the woods.
“I… yeah…” she said in a small voice. She then looked up, her eyes conveying that a new thought had occurred to her. “Oh my god… my dad… he must be freaking out right now.”
Oh great.
“Hate to break it to you, creampuff, but you won’t be seeing your dad anytime soon. Besides, if you did, you’d probably kill him. You guys never have any self-control.”
“What do you mean, ‘you guys’?” Laura asked.
“The newly-turned. The babies. That’s what you are. Just a few hours old and starving. Coincidentally, that’s our first order of business,” Carmilla said, stopping in her tracks. They had reached a little clearing and somewhere nearby some large creature was letting out giant breaths of slumber. “We’ll see if you’re worth my time. If you can catch yourself a meal, then I’ll let you stick around, because no one’s going to catch your food for you. There’s a bear in here somewhere, certainly enough for a hungry baby’s first meal. Count this as your first test, sweetheart.”
The icy look had returned to Laura’s face at the mention of food, but she seemed reluctant. “That is absolutely disgusting.”
“And yet you want it,” Carmilla said with a smirk. “Of course, I can’t take you close to anyplace with a high human population for a meal. New vamps are too hungry for their own good. You’d slaughter the lot of them.”
Laura’s fangs had already come out as her eyes glazed over with hunger. She shook her head, still reluctant despite the trail of drool that had begun to trickle down the corner of her mouth.
“Get going already. I don’t have all night.”
With that, Laura shot towards the sleeping bear with the kind of speed only the newly-turned could manage, before the power-inducing substance pumping through them had leveled off enough for them to be just as strong as a vampire should be.
It was then that Carmilla saw why Mother and William had high hopes for this girl. Watching her take down a pissed off massive brown bear… Carmilla was almost impressed. And possibly maybe slightly turned on.
“Get. Up.”
All Carmilla could think at this moment was that Will was never this difficult. When she’d beaten him down, he had gotten back up and threw it all right back at her. Training him was a synch. It paid off in the end. Laura, on the other hand, had already driven her to the point of actually thinking good of momma’s boy WIlly.
Laura stared up at her from her point on the ground, where she’d been knocked down for the fourth time in a row.
“Go to hell,” Laura groaned in annoyance more than anger, but she got to her feet again and resumed the sparring stance.
“William said you pulled some martial arts moves on him when he sired you. I want to see some of that when we’re sparring,” Carmilla said. “Like it or not, sweetheart, you’re a part of the cult now. Learn to fight. If you fight well, you’ll be in Mother’s good graces. If you don’t, you’ll need to fight your way out because they’ll be coming to get you.”
“I don’t --” she threw a punch at Carmilla, who ducked it, “want to be --” Laura slid away from Carmilla’s roundhouse kick, “a part --” Laura did a sliding kick, causing Carmilla to lose her footing before being slammed to the ground, “of your stupid clan.”
In Laura’s burst of anger, Carmilla threw out another kick and sent Laura sprawling, using the momentum to leap to her feet. “And you think you can do a thing to change your fate? Well, you can’t. I’ve been trying for a lot longer than you have, creampuff, and it’s no use.”
“I want to live! I want to go home to my dad. I want to start college at the end of summer like I was supposed to. I want things to get back to normal!” Laura shouted, standing back up.
Carmilla glared at her.
“You are an ignorant little child who has so much to learn about how your world works. Your life is not normal, in the same way your death wasn’t normal. You understand nothing, and the sooner you change that, the better off we’ll all be.”
Laura was silent for a moment, but only for a moment.
“How hard did you try?” Laura asked, the anger in her voice ebbing away. “How hard did you really try to get away?”
For a second, Carmilla considered just walking away from this naive little girl and leaving it at that, but then the words were leaving her mouth before she could stop them.
“I spent half a century imprisoned beneath the earth inside a bloody coffin the first time I showed any disobedience. The only reason I’m up here now is because a bomb loosened my prison and I was able to get free,” Carmilla said. “When they found me, it was back to the old life, but the coffin was waiting should I ever show disobedience again. The price of going against Mother is more than just death. It’s eternal suffering.”
Laura was completely quiet now, eyes wide and looking as if she was deciding whether or not to show Carmilla any sympathy. Carmilla knew that part of her would be worn away with time.
“Do you want to survive?” Carmilla asked. “Do you truly want to live.”
“Yes,” Laura replied. “But I also want a better life.”
Carmilla sighed. “I don’t know how far you’ll get with that, but I suppose the first step is to learn how to be a vampire.”
Mid-July, more than a month since Laura became Carmilla’s charge, and Carmilla had to admit she was actually impressed with the girl’s progress. Laura having some background in Krav Maga was a good prerequisite for Carmilla to teach her to fight, and her insatiable bloodlust had lessened to a point of being basically normal.
“What are you thinking about?” Carmilla asked the girl after a sparring session. “You had your game face on during that fight. What was going through your head?”
Laura smiled at her. “I was thinking about getting out of here.”
Carmilla’s stomach dropped. Laura looked at her hesitantly.
“No.”
“Carmilla-”
“No. Goddamnit Laura, no.”
Laura huffed. “Well the least you could do is hear me out and -- wait. Did you just call me Laura? What happened to cupcake, cutie, creampuff?”
Carmilla actually let out a low growl at that, standing up and getting right in Laura’s face. The anger inside Carmilla was boiling over and she only had one thing to say at this exact moment. The words came out in a seething whisper. “Fuck you.”
“Touchy much?” was Laura’s response.
“For the love of…. Can’t you see that I am trying to help you? Why do you make it so goddamn difficult? It’s like you want to--”
“How’s it going, my lovely ladies?” Will’s voice cut Carmilla off. “What has the two of you in such a twist?”
William was sauntering toward them, a slight smirk on his face as if amused by them.
Laura glanced in between Will and Carmilla, her eyes resting on the latter with concealed fear in her eyes. Carmilla glared briefly at Laura before turning back to Will.
“My charge here is just being difficult. Nothing I can’t break her out of.”
“I’ll be sure to tell Mother that you’re confident about it,” he replied, before continuing on his way. Once he was out of sight, Carmilla visibly deflated.
“You sure are a lot of heartache, kid,” Carmilla said. “Why is it so hard to just do as you’re told? Fall in line, keep your head down. Is that so hard?”
“Do I strike you as the type of person who can fall in line?” Laura said, letting out a breathy laugh. Admittedly, Carmilla found the defiance in this girl kind of breathtaking. That is, if she actually needed breath. “I have a life to get back to.”
“That’s the life you died in. No going back.”
“That’s the life that’s still waiting for me. My dad has to have driven himself nuts looking for me. And I’m due to start at Silas soon.”
Silas. Wait.
“What?” Carmilla asked.
But Laura was still rambling about all the things she had to get back to without hearing what Carmilla had said.
“Laura. Did you say Silas?”
Laura looked back at Carmilla. “What about it?”
“Jesus fucking Christ. I think you just made me believe in fate after all.”
“What the heck are you on about?”
Carmilla almost laughed at how ridiculous this situation was. How ridiculously perfect and stupid it was. “Laura, I think there’s a way I can get you permission to get out of here, go to college, maybe even see your dad again.”
Laura stilled. “Seriously?”
“It will only work if you can show Mother you’re capable of being one of us within the next few weeks, though.”
Laura threw her arms around Carmilla, squealing excitedly.
Carmilla ignored the rush of affection she felt coursing through her for the girl, but couldn’t keep the smile off her face. Carmilla briefly wondered if Laura would still feel this excited once she finds out what going to Silas would mean. She found herself dreading that moment. It was something she knew Laura would hate her for.
Goddamnit. Sweet little Laura becoming a murderer. Who knew?
Then again, she’s sure the others had said the same thing about her at first. The truth was, Laura wasn’t so different from how Carmilla was when she first came into the clan. The truth bites.
The university loomed before the two of them.
“How did your dad take it? You know, you walking in like that after so many weeks?” Carmilla asked Laura as they carried their bags through the campus grounds.
“He hasn’t let me out of his sight for the past two weeks. He almost wouldn’t let me come here,” Laura said with a wide smile on her face.
Carmilla still hadn’t told her about their task here at Silas yet. She didn’t want to ruin this girl’s smile.
“I can’t wait for classes to start. I’m really looking forward to my journalism course. And I suppose you’ll be in philosophy?” Laura asked.
Carmilla nodded, not looking at Laura. She was having trouble looking at the girl without a rush of guilt surfacing in her.
“Hey, Carm?” Laura said, pausing where they stood under the shadowy light of a lamppost. It was the middle of the night and the scene was eerily quiet, except for the sound of Laura’s voice.
“Yeah?”
Laura took Carmilla’s hand in her own. Her hand was welcomingly cool to the touch.
“Thanks for doing this,” Laura said. “I… I know you didn’t do it just for me but… still…”
“Don’t be an idiot. Of course I did it for you,” Carmilla replied, suddenly finding her gaze fluttering between Laura’s eyes and Laura’s lips.
Laura smiled again and the two of them walked hand in hand towards their dorm.
Best to not let the truth ruin a nice night, right?