Reggie climbed out of the SUV and trudged towards the house her family were using as a base. It had taken another three hours to convince Division 5 to let them leave without threats of violence. Everything was set up for the next night, but the sun was already peeking over the horizon and Reggie was knackered.

"You okay, Love?"

She turned at the quiet voice of her father. They looked like siblings, but Jon always looked out for her like the father he was. It was the first chance they had had to speak.

Reggie nodded.

"Just tired," she promised him, "and wondering how I always end up in these situations."

Her eyes flicked to Magda who looked as ragged as Reggie felt.

"You do have all the fun," her dad said with a small smile.

He was good like that, able to read her and know when she wanted to talk and when she was deflecting. They'd probably have a very long discussion about all this once the current situation was dealt with.

"You just wish you had a life like mine," she replied in kind.

He clapped her on the shoulder and gave her a nod. They both knew what page they were on.

"Now I think our commander in chief is giving us a look," he said as he glanced past her, "so I'll let you get that conversation over. Make sure you get some sleep soon."

"Yes, Dad," she said. "Oh," she added, "tell mum I love her when you talk to her before bed."

Her father smiled and nodded before walking towards the door. Rachel, her mum, had once been a field operative like her brother David, working in the background for them, but she had been retired for a few years now and had to just worry about them at home. Jon always called her every morning without fail. It comforted Reggie that her parents were still so much in love, even though one of them had aged normally and the other would be forever young.

Reggie really wanted to head straight to her room, but, when she glanced over at Mina, she knew that expression on her great-great-grandmother's face as well as her father did. With a nod she acknowledged it and waited to follow Mina inside and into what the family had turned into the operations room.

"You look tired," Mina said as Magda closed the door.

"I am, what with the excitement and then the claiming," Reggie admitted. "If Major Baron isn't very careful I will strangle him with his own intestines."

"Only if I don't get there first," Mina agreed.

That was one thing Reggie always appreciated about most of her family; they had as blood thirsty imaginations as she did.

"Will you be okay for this evening or do we need to make arrangements?" Mina asked, which was her great-great-grandmother's way of asking if her other nature needed to be let out to play before they dealt with Dracula.

"I'll be fine," Reggie said. "It's probably better if I am hungry, considering what I need to do."

"As long as you have reserves," Mina pointed out. "We don't want you being forced into anything and giving yourself away."

"It won't be a problem," Reggie promised.

Her family were always careful, it was why they were all still alive.

"What about Sorin?" Reggie decided to change the subject. "He's going to get in the way."

"Agreed," Mina replied. "But he can also lead us straight to Dracula's coach."

"What?"

This was information Mina had not mentioned before.

"That was why I agreed to Director Lan's terms," Mina revealed. "Apparently Sorin can tell where in the pass the coach will appear on any given night."

"He must hear Dracula's call," Reggie concluded.

"My thoughts exactly."

"Wonder if his friends realise how close he probably is to answering it?"

"I doubt it. He worries me, but I'm sure you can handle him. I'll leave it up to you how you proceed, just don't let him wreck anything."

"It'll be my pleasure."

For now Reggie was willing to give Sorin the benefit of the doubt, but she would keep her eye on him.

"Was that all?" she asked.

"Yes," Mina said, losing the stern look she always had when they dealt with serious matters, "now you and your wolf should get to bed. Magda, we're sorry you're in the middle of all of this," Mina continued, switching to Romanian. "Please accept our hospitality and know we will do our best to keep you safe."

Magda had proved earlier that she had a good grasp of English, but she seemed to appreciate Mina taking the trouble to talk to her in her own language.

"Thank you," she said, "but I have not been safe since a bastard used me as a chew toy fifteen years ago. I will face whatever comes."

Reggie filed that bit of information away. She'd not met a forcibly turned werewolf before. At home werewolves tended to be organised into packs and infecting humans to create new wolves was a very carefully controlled business. Romania was once again proving to be closer to the wilder side of the supernatural.

"Then good morning and sleep well," Mina said, turning to some papers on the desk.

Reggie was pretty sure her great-great-grandmother would not be getting any sleep herself that day.

~*~

"Sorry there's only one bed," Reggie said as she walked into her room. "This will get easier soon, I promise, probably in twelve hours or so, definitely in forty eight. When this is all over we'll see about reversing the process, but that takes months."

When Magda didn't say anything, Reggie turned to look at the other woman.

"A claiming cannot be undone," Magda said.

She was frowning and her posture was tense, but there was something hopeful in her expression as well.

"More of Dracula's propaganda," Reggie said, pulling her jumper over her head and throwing it at the chair in the corner.

She missed.

"A claiming is part brainwashing, part vampire power and, if both parties are in agreement, it can be dissolved," she went on. "The problem is, it takes real work from both sides. When I invaded your brain I forced in seconds what would take months of psychological breakdown on a normal human level, and I'm unconsciously reinforcing it. We have to stop me doing that and deprogram you, for you to go back to being Magda the independent werewolf."

Magda didn't look like she believed that at all.

"I've never heard ..."

"Yes, well, both parties being willing isn't something you're likely to find with most vampires, is it?" Reggie interrupted.

Magda's mouth twisted a little as she tilted her head, before finally nodding.

"That makes sense."

Reggie was glad that little discussion was out of the way.

"Until then we just have to make the best of it," she said and began undressing.

She wanted a shower, but she was too tired, she'd do that after a few hours sleep. The next night was going to be a very busy one and she wanted her wits about her.

"You can shower if you like," she told Magda as she thought about it, "and you can borrow any clothes that fit, if you want clean ones. I don't have much with me, but what's mine is yours, for a while, at least."

What she was not expecting was for a gentle hand to glide up her back and onto her shoulder. She turned to find Magda standing very close.

"I could do things to take both our minds off the situation," Magda offered with what Reggie was sure was supposed to be a seductive smile.

Mostly the werewolf looked conflicted.

Reggie took a deep breath, she should have expected this. She took hold of Magda's hand, removed it from her shoulder and turned, but she did not let it go because rejecting her wolf completely would have been disastrous.

"First of all," she said carefully, "thank you, Magda, but no."

The claiming would be having all sorts of effects on Magda that the werewolf had little or no control over.

"Secondly, I would never take advantage of you like that. The instincts must be really confusing for you, and this is not a rejection, okay, you've done nothing wrong, but I don't need that from you. I'm," at that point she realised she had no idea how to say demisexual in Romanian. "Do you know the term 'demisexual'?" she asked.

Magda looked unsure, it wasn't as if everyone at home knew what it meant anyway.

"It means I don't feel sexual attraction to anyone unless I have a very deep emotional bond with them first," Reggie explained. "I have claimed you, but that's all on a supernatural level and it left the human part of me completely behind. You're a good looking woman, but you could be a Great Dane and it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference to me at the moment."

"I thought vampires liked sex?"

"Yes, well, as I explained about six thousand times last night, I'm not a vampire and the universe loves a good joke," Reggie replied and went about pulling off the rest of her clothes, except her underwear. "Now, I really need to sleep, so I'm going to clean my teeth and fall face first into bed. You're welcome to take the other half and there are spare toiletries next to the sink."

Hoping that the discussion was over, Reggie wandered into the bathroom, leaving the door open so Magda could tell she was right there, and pottered around her usual routine. She was half asleep by the time she walked back out. With a sinking feeling she realised Magda had not moved.

"Problem?" she asked.

"You do not want me, but you invite me into your bed," Magda said.

"It's that or the floor," Reggie said, "and it doesn't look pleasant. If it makes you more comfortable you're welcome to choose though."

She was too tired for this. The bed was calling her name and she walked past the werewolf and lifted the covers. It had been a very long two days scouting the area, then walking into the wrong vampire bar and dealing with Division 5, she needed sleep. Magda could make up her own mind.

There was the sound of movement and water from the bathroom, so she drifted into a doze, hoping that everything would work out.The other side of the bed dipping woke her a little a few minutes later, but she was pleased and went to sleep with a smile on her face.