Part 24:

Delilah's blood-stained mouth, her lips pouty and shiny with her victims' life essence hovered over Stephanie, fangs out, eyes shining like green stars.
"I want more," the vampire whispered before biting her.
Stephanie sat up all at once, her hand shooting out to touch her exposed neck. Next to her, Hunter snored peacefully, unaware of his wife's state of unrest. Grabbing a robe, she swung her legs off the bed and made her way to the kitchen. The blue digits of the oven clock said it was 8:28 and next to it the coffee pot was already full. She grabbed a mug and filled it, sipping at the deliciously warm liquid when a voice disrupted her first relaxing moment in over two years.
"It's rude to serve yourself before guests."
Her personalized mug slipped from her grasp and crashed to the ground as she spun around, Delilah's name dying on her lips as she faced her intruders.
"Who the hell are you? Jazz, where the hell have you been?" Stephanie asked the Black woman who was now standing in her kitchen, looking as comfortable as a bull in a china shop.
Jazz wasn't alone however. She was standing next to a man who looked to be in his fifties and yet had a full head of dark blond hair. He stood at about 6'3" and Steph could discern the wiry strength under his shirt and sports jacket. And as captivating as his amber eyes were, his and Jazz' companion demanded attention.
In her numerous travels Stephanie had seen a lot of people in wheelchairs. They usually looked sad and defeated by life. This woman was different however. She looked eerily young, much like Delilah, but there was a steely determination about her, a certain aura that made her look dangerous, stuck in a wheelchair though she was. She now raised crystal-like blue eyes to Stephanie, her gaze unwavering.
"She touched you," she said with an uncanny softness, "endeared herself to you."
"Who are you?"
"She is using you… like she used me."
"Delilah?"
"Yes… Delilah." The wheelchair-bound woman rolled over to Stephanie and curled her arthritic fingers around her wrist. "She has touched you, hasn't she?"
"What do you mean?"
"She touched you? Bound your soul to hers?"
"You're hurting me! Let go!"
Adelaide rolled away from Stephanie and into the living room to the bay windows. With Jazz' encouraging nod, Steph followed the older woman.
"Who are you?"
"I am the first one Delilah loved."
"Loved? Delilah doesn't love me. I'm just a means to an end as far as she's concerned."
"A means to what end?"
"Who knows?"
"You do," Adelaide said with a smile.
"Steph? What's going on?"
Stephanie looked from her husband to Adelaide and sighed. Pressing a hand to her heart, she told what she knew.

Her hunger reawakened, Delilah knew it would take a good long time for it to be sated. In the meantime, she would have to make do. Unfortunately, in that measly little night, she'd fed enough to raise suspicion. She rose from her bed, sleeping in a coffin was an affectation that brought forth unpleasant memories, and floated to the bathroom. Activated by sensors, it started immediately and she opened her mouth as blood poured from the showerhead. It was a special amenity provided to vampires by hotel owners responsive from their most peculiar clients. Rivulets of blood trickled down her white skin, caressing her like a lover's hand. Her black hair took on an almost reddish tint under the viscous liquid's flow and her green eyes looked like Christmas ornaments on her blood-streaked face.
Finally, she reached over and switched the tap to water. But even as she stepped out of the stall, her skin clean and white, Delilah could still smell the blood on every inch of her skin, empowering her like nothing in this world ever could nor ever would. She got dressed and walked out of the room and then the hotel. Once she was outside, she raised her nose in the air and sniffed. Vlad wasn't close but she would find him. She always did, always would.

Part 25:

Raw power, raw sensuality, raw life... all emanated from Delilah as she walked into Madison Square Garden. Her hips rolled under the black suede of tight flared hip huggers and matching corset. Her beige leather duster framed the lower half of her face and was a match for her high heel boots. Her long black hair flowed down her back to her waist and her green eyes sparkled, not with life but with vitality.
With each click of her heel on the terrazzo floor, a head turned, someone did a double-take, a jaw dropped, eyes bulged out, lips were licked. Delilah was very aware of the havoc she was creating and enjoying the hell out of it. She passed by a small group of people and felt all four lust after her. She stopped in front of them, hands on her hips, her red lips curled into a seductive smile.
"Enjoying the view?"
"Don't mind if we do," Jeff Hardy said with an appraising smile.
"Mind? Why would I mind?"
"No reason whatsoever."
"You're looking really good," Trish said, her mouth dry. "Your little trip did you a lot of good."
"You don't know how much," Delilah said, smiling at Lita and Matt, her hunger for them strong.
She went on walking down the hall until Stephanie stepped in her way. Both women stopped and stared at each other for a good long while. Delilah tried to find the young woman beyond the spoiled little princess she'd initially met and found her, remembering the crazy night they'd spent together. As for Stephanie, she desperately tried associating the killer she'd met last night with the portrait painted by Adelaide.
"I need to speak to you."
"All right."
Delilah followed her into a room, the hair on the back of her neck rising as she did. When she saw who waited for her, she tilted her head to the side.
"Adelaide... you missed me!"
"Delilah. The years still have no hold on your beauty."
"Thank you sweet love."
Delilah bent over Adelaide and pressed her full fleshy lips to the older woman's thin wrinkled mouth. It was a long moment and when the vampire finally pulled away, the years seemed to have melted off Adelaide. She was nowhere as youthful looking as Delilah but the mother of all vampires seemed to have infused her with new life so to speak.
"You're looking well," Delilah smiled at her former protégé.
"I didn't come here for this."
"I'm quite certain you didn't, but consider it a bonus."
"Fruit of a poisoned tree," Adelaide said very dryly.
"Oh come now. These nice people are going to start thinking you hate me."
"I do hate you Delilah, with every fiber of my being."
"What Delilah giveth, she also taketh away."
With a wave of her hand over Adelaide's face, Delilah piled the years on the visage she had rejuvenated. It was a startling sight to see the course of nature so easily perturbed by one willful woman.
"Are you happier now sweet Adelaide? You look older and sourer than your lovely mother ever did. Ah, sweet lady Edith. I remember you once told me that it was the fear of being compared to her that drove you to be so outrageous at times."
"I was an ignorant child then. I have grown since."
"Grown... what a perfectly inadequate way of describing your life. You lost your way with words, my beautiful Adelaide."
"I gained a purpose to replace it."
"Purpose? You think you have found a purpose? Murder is not a purpose."
"Murder? I'm safeguarding humanity from your kind."
"A kind you were once only too eager to join."
"Childish fantasy..."
"Murder is so much more adult and mature."
"You might call it murder but I see it as safeguarding humanity."
"Then do it now," Delilah said as she pulled on the laces of her corset, lowering it to uncover her full breast, "grab one of those wooden stakes you and yours are so fond of and kill me. By your hand Adelaide, kill the mother of all vampires, the Goddess of the Blood. Safeguard humanity by committing the one murder that will truly bring joy to your heart. Kill me."
Adelaide growled and tried rising from her wheelchair but to no avail.
"You can't kill me Adelaide. You can't kill me because you love me as much as you ever did. And your minions can't kill me because I am the Goddess and they are puny humans."
"You have no love or respect for me and mine."
"I give love and respect in the same doses I receive them. You loved me Addy and I loved you in return, gave you eternal life and saved your life, preserved it. But when you decided killing me was your best bet, then everything changed."
"I aged..."
"For no other reason than your hatred. As long as you loved Adelaide, me or anyone else for that matter, you remained as young as your heart. But when you started to hate, you started to age. And then, when you made others kill for you, your aging went only faster."
"I hated only because you left me Delilah."
"You knew I would leave you," Delilah said softly, kneeling in front of Adelaide. "You knew I couldn't settle on forever when I didn't even understand its meaning."
"I know..."
"There are so many around you who would do anything for your love. Like this child," Delilah said, turning to Jazz, "she needs your love for her life is spurned on only by hatred of me and mine. And this man... who had loved you, no matter of your age."
"This is all irrelevant," Eric said harshly, "we have a bigger problem on our hands than Adelaide's love for you."
"Eric..." Adelaide whispered very softly.
Immediately, Adelaide's face regained its youth, amazing all in attendance. Delilah stepped back and turned to Stephanie.
"Was I set to take Adelaide's place?" the McMahon woman asked.
"Not even close. You're a means to an end."
"What end is that?"
"The complete destruction of Vlad Tepes."
At that, Adelaide, Eric and Jazz turned to Delilah, all of them looking very serious.
"How can we help?"

Part 26:

"Lovely Sara," Vlad whispered into the former blonde's ear as she sat next to him on a couch, "are you quite sure you're here for the right reason?"
"He married me and never told me about her!"
"Ah yes, his mate Delilah."
"Do you know her? Is she pretty?"
"She has a certain appeal I suppose. But she certainly does not hold a candle to you."
Sara smiled at Vlad, getting completely lost in his eyes, having completely forgotten about Shane's presence in the room with her. Shane however couldn't forget about Sara's presence. Vlad was forcing him to watch him seduce Sara and the young McMahon was hating his lover for it.
"Now tell me Sara, what could I possibly give you that your husband can't, or won't, give you?"
"Turn me."
Vlad smiled and as Shane watched his smile, he knew that by tonight, Sara would be turned and that he still wouldn't be.

"Mistress!" Gangrel, Edge and Christian rushed to Delilah, falling to their knees as they found her sitting on a couch in Taker's dressing room.
"Leave us," she said waving them to a smaller room off to the side, staring at her mate.
"How?" he asked, dropping his bags by the door and slamming it shut.
"The Three Sisters... they captured us and..."
"I see..."
"He was happy to go."
"I know. His time came and went long ago."
"Yes."
Delilah rose from the couch and went to Markus, laying her hands on his chest. "Tonight, the monster dies."
"I know."
"I take it you've been preparing the children."
"Yes. They are ready... but Tepes is mine."
"No... he is mine... I turned him and it is time I show him who the Goddess of the Blood truly is."

The woman who'd lived her whole life as Molly Holly rose from the bed to find the one who'd made her, Sara, smiling down at her. Vlad looked at both of them, his lust for them as strong as it had ever been. No matter how often it was said that vampires were fallen angels, no angel looked more fallen than Molly Holly. Already the puncture wounds on the side of her neck were closing themselves and she opened her eyes.
"I hunger," she told Sara breathlessly.
"Shane," Vlad said dryly, "get a gimp from the closet."
Shane jumped to attention and went over to the closet and opened it. The Brooklyn Brawler and Tazz stood there, their eyes empty, as they had been since Vlad had read them a mind control spell. Shane grabbed the Thug from Red Hook and dragged him over to the bed where Molly was slowly sitting up, her blond hair covering her bare shoulders.
"Here," Vlad said, "have a drink, granddaughter."
As Molly grabbed Tazz's neck, Vlad whispered the mind control counterspell, giving Tazz the urge of survival. But a hungry vampire, no matter how young, was not a creature meant to be deterred. Molly's hold on his neck was punishing and she would have broken his neck if it hadn't been Vlad getting on the bed next to her.
"If you kill him before you're done drinking, you'll drink his death and follow him into true darkness. And the ones who fight are always tastier."
Imperceptibly, Molly nodded and went on drinking until Tazz died. She then looked at her mother and father, her eyes wide with her blood-lust, "I hunger... for more..."
Sara and Vlad had never felt so proud. Shane had never felt more jealous.

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