Just over six in the morning, Treffen woke up with the roosters calling the sun. Winter hides its signs even with Christmas so close. Early and Carmilla was standing by the bedroom window, waiting with closed eyes and a cute smile on her face. Weak, but increasing along the street, in small steps and slight slips, Laura's heartbeats. The orders were to stay away.

For now.

Norma guarded the first room of the corridor, the prosecutor would know if the renegade tried anything, the judge and the executioner were late hunting the centurion, which prolonged the separation and increased the longing, but warned the vampire, that had been almost. And get close was to put a rope around Laura's neck - neck that Carmilla loved to bite - besides, the brunette was not there to get involved with anyone; she had to go to her own world.

Carmilla finished taking off some bandages, looking at the closet mirror. The dagger mark without healing.

Fuck!

She took worn - out jeans, and went to the backpack looking for a shirt, because Garu destroyed the one she wore.

"I can't believe," Sighed when no shirt come out the backpack. She turned everything on the floor. Several books fell, an extra pair of low boots, other pants - not leather - among other pieces of clothing, and some bundles full of dried moose meat. The vampire still could not feed, but a piece of dried and salted meat between her teeth was good for distracting them while she fetched any garments for the top.

She ended up rearrange her beloved books, turning over folded cloths with some dried flower, or herb from other country she had passed through. She smiled when found a leather bracelet with a metallic wing, one of her mother's gifts.

"Finaly, I was going to jump in the lake after you," Grunted to the side of the fireplace where a strange aura distorted the air and Death Kiss appeared from the point edge till the cable leaning on the wall. "I'll just have to do one thing before, like take an extra shirt and then you will take me, for real this time." She was silent, like she really expected an answer from the inert blade.

The vampire had several boarding passes between her fingers that she had already taken, although traveling for free was easy and even fun. Sometimes she bought the ticket to carry a fresh memory, life was lonely before and after the coffin, for an instant she remembered that loneliness, when her eyes locked on a small wooden box. Her mother had given that little box with a wind rose carved on the lid. Inside was a necklace with a blue crystal pendant. She feel her fingertips freeze by the touch. Then she saw a less pleasurable package to remember, between the layers of the silk scarf, a black leather choker, adorned with silver and blood red rubies, which she once touched and tasted, especially the stone that crowned the piece, the same size as the others, but the bright 13th near the buckle was sore in Carmilla's chest.

"It will be better even if she doesn't stay with me," Said loudly, at the same time someone slammed the door. The brunette thought that was Norma, but a surprise overpowered the vampire when she found the journalist standing in the hall.

"Hi," Laura lost her breath when she saw her, the top covered by tight bandages. "My God, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

She had just said; she had just promised, and her doom was right there.

"Are you really okay?" The journalist asked with the little breath she could take.

"I'm fine Laura, how about you?" Instinctively, the vampire touch the blonde's face.

"Okay, happy with this warmer weather, but Christmas is coming, so it will be freezi... Wait, how do you know my name? Have we met before?" The vampire choked. "Tell me, have we meet up around? Like? I don't think I ever saw you in the city, before you rolled down the stairs. Wait again by that fall you end up like this?" The blonde was gaping at the dangers of Punkt's metal stairs.

"No, we never meet and. It would have been better never saw you, by the way what kind of weirdo chases a stranger?" Carmilla raised an eyebrow.

Laura tried to babble something, but the vampire continues with no reply.

"Won't you tell me you hunt anyone you see? You think everyone will say yes to whatever you want? Take the hint, girl," Carm's sarcasm mode on. "Or maybe, you come after something else, that usually I look for at night?" She blinked.

"WHAT?! NO! I was worried about you. You are so wounded. Wait one second, you knew my name that night, and you were at the bar, it was you who came after me, you asked someone for my name! You must have rolled the ladder on purpose too, I bet how many of these bandages are fake!" Laura nudged the right below the ribs, causing Carmilla to fall flat on her face. "What an act! Worried for nothing, bye!" The blonde turned and walked away, stomping and complaining alone.

"Go! And don't come back!" Shouted clinging to the doorframe. Don't come back, it will be better. "She murmured to the red, mottling the bandages.

"Oh my. Already chasing, my dear?" Asked Mina at the corridor entrance with Garu behind her. "Maybe I should be tougher, maybe making Laura fall for strong woodcutter?" Smiled with their clothes torn apart, a long hunt.

"Mina, glad you are back. I'm sorry, Laura was here at my command, I wanted to make sure the judge's will was fulfilled. She remember nothing." Said Norma with her head out in the hall.

"Doubting my skills, prosecutor?!" The door pressed Norma's head with a look from the judge.

"Please, Your Excellency." Garu held the door. "No one here can doubt your skills, I'm sure what happened was because of our delay in the centurion's execution." Fallvalion faced Mina, who gave up on crushing Evergot's skull.

"Fine, I'm sorry Norma, I'm exhausted, hunting the pack was a very unpleasant task. I need to relax." She massaged her shoulders. "Garu and I are going to take a bath, this will be very pleasant." She smiled at the prosecutor who was trying to hide the dismay. "Leave it to her." Mina threw the cloak over the executioner to hand over a large glass filled with water and ears that probably belonged to the centurion and his colleagues.

The prosecutor caught the miserable object taking the floor as vision, the executioner turned without looking at the redhead, who pulled Mina's cloak. But for a second they met their eyes.

"Quickly Garu I'm very stressed, I need to release this tension." Mina called three doors after Carmilla.

Carm was almost blind for two days, but she noticed the looks between Evergot and Fallvalion. Garu steps weighed towards the smiling judge, unbuttoning her vest. The lawyer entered the room by slamming the door, as did the other two. The youngest vampire closed the door slowly, settling in with her belongings, picking up any book and opening it on a random page.

***

In the middle of the night Carmilla went to the bar to drink, at least try it. She leaned over the counter asking the bartender, hypnotized by the triad. Sipping and unfinished two fingers of vodka in less than two hours.

"Do not overdo the drink, it will still be difficult to eat anything." Said Garu sitting at the right of the renegade.

"Shouldn't you be with Mina?" Asked when she saw the hangman's loose damp hair, hiding the neck bandages.

"I just got her on a train." Replied, swallowing a dose to make the brunette jealous.

"Shouldn't you have gone with her?"

"She was the one who wanted to go alone, I just carried the pot and bags to the train."

"You should sleep now, you need rest, after the night, you are pale."

"No, I'm the guardian, so I have to make sure everything is in order for the prosecutor."

"Ah! Come on! After all, is this how you stay with her?" Carmilla stared at the dismayed hangman. "You look at each other like that, and you sleep with the judge? Give me a break."

"Careful Carmilla, it's not that simple. You think I'm going to Mina's room of my will? The judge commands the executioner, there is no choice, it's marked, and obliges me to obey." Garu looked out of the corner of his eyes at the rogue vampire beside her.

"What a poor thing. What else? Should I pity you?"

"No, not at all. I'm just not an executioner without a judge which leads me to think now." Fallvalion threw Carmilla on the counter, squeezing her neck. "I'm not the executioner for now, so you should be a little more careful with a simple grumpy vampire, that can kill with no previous order, especially dumb vampires like you. If you believe you have any right to criticize me, do it, you are young, but I admit to you, the only reason I am not in Evergot's bed is because she locked herself in her room." Gradually she was loosening her fingers .

The brunette pushed the executioner who fell backwards on a table, releasing the bandage, revealing the bites on the right side of the neck.

One flying bottle over Newman's head - Danny's colleague - the sound of shattering glass bounced among the drunks, and it transformed Punkt on the stage of the month's 848th drunk war. Men glided in the air, slipped in puddles of beer, others tossed the smallest on the tables, the largest tossed the tables itself, while the bartender dodged the shattered chairs on the counter.

"It's you and me." Said Garu putting her back to Carmilla's back.

"We both are nothing, I'm not like you!" Growled the brunette, dodging a bottle that hit the executioner's back.

"You're right," Garu punched the face of an already toothless mechanic. "You right, we aren't. She ended up alive. It wasn't supposed to end up like that!" Carmilla again deflected so that the attack of the flying chair hit the executioner.

"Alive?!" Questioned the renegade advancing with a bottle of whiskey. "If weren't for your tongue, she would be fine, she wouldn't have been there," The brunette snarled forward with the bottle that broke in the face of a recess soldier.

They grappled. Fallvalion held the angry brunette's wrists. Eyes meet, anger and a strange understanding. The brunette stepped on the blonde's knee to jump back, hitting a knee on the hangman's chin, releasing her, taking advantage of the blow, threw the bottle aimed at the opponent's chest.

A drunk took the bottle, falling on the floor.

"Shit!" Growled the brunette.

Garu reestablished herself, and Carmilla was already on top of her, delivering a beautiful left-hand jab. The angry vampire straddled her enemy, holding her arms with her knees, handing out several crossed ones.

"If you had said nothing! Mina wouldn't have seen Laura! She would not have suffered. If it weren't for you, I would have saved her!" Said it between punches.

"Do you think Mina would have stopped?" Garu looked at the enemy's eyes, detaching her right hand and throwing it at the aggressor's waist.

Carmilla fell forward with the gut writhing.

"You really think Mina would have stopped?" Garu asked at Carmilla's ear, moaning in pain. "Do you think that even if you were innocent, the judge would have left you alive if it weren't for Laura to have crossed our path?" The executioner put even more pressure on the wound below the renegade's ribs, making her weak. In a quick movement Fallvalion gets up, sitting on the brunette on her lap. "If it weren't for that girl and what you had, Mina would have killed and buried you with the sergeant."

Carmilla dug her nails into the executioner's shoulders, pulling out a grunt of pain. She threw the renegade on the floor and standing over the renegade's thighs.

"Mina wouldn't have stopped, no, she hates your mother and hates you even more for having Laura, she hates everything that can love like she can't," A table fell on them both, Fallvalion bent down protecting the renegade still moaning in pain. "It's not just my life that is at risk if I try to resist the judge's control," Garu stood up, pulling the brunette together and defending her from Kirsch trying to grab her. The boy flies out the window with a kick from the blonde.

Another bottle flew at the executioner, but Carmilla defended it and threw the bottle against the drunk. Again, back to back.

"I won't thank you." Said the brunette.

"I will not apologize." Replied the blonde.

Both amid the chaos of alcohol, both destroyed by Mina, but both struggling to live that life.

***

The sun had just come out of the horizon, the wind dancing in a gentle icy breeze between passersby at the train station, Norma walked beside Carmilla tying her coat too big - the executioner's cloak given as a gift by the prosecutor herself - Garu walked further back with the bags.

The silence between them was a little uncomfortable, there was no issue, and that was not a problem, since the renegade was thirsty for the farewell to the court, but the discomfort came from the prosecutor and the executioner who were not looking at each other. The customs guard looked nervous, looking at his pocket watch every three minutes, his mustache wet with sweat and his nervous hands tightening the luggage handles.

"Things seem getting bad," Fallvalion said with the scene of the guards. "So it is better to embark today."

"It's not just for that," Norma said giving a bump on the shoulder of the blonde entering the train.

"Jeez. Good luck." Said Carm.

"There's no use, she'll be like this for another half century," Sighed Garu adjusting Carmilla's scarf. "Too big, but it's better than being naked, I left a bag of mine in your closet," Fallvalion embarked, but she was kicked out by Norma hurried to give the renegade a hug.

"Take it," The redhead put folded paper in the pocket of Carmilla's cloak. "She's very good and already had your measurements, go there in a few weeks."

"All aboard!" Shouted the train driver.

"Let's go Fallvalion, it's not time to rest!"

"I'm not resting, you're the one above me!" Grunted the executioner with the prosecutor stepping on her back.

The train left under the renegade's gaze until it disappeared into the distant forest. Carmilla turned and saw the afflicted customs guards. Some soldiers in gray uniforms were issuing new orders for boarding and disembarking.

***

"She never fails," Smiled Carm sitting at Punkt stairs listening to Laura's heart beats, always in the same hurry and stumbles, insisting on carrying more that she could take.

Two days since the departure of the court. Everything was calmer now. Any creature in the vicinity had been silent, it was barely noticeable the presence of other nocturnal, and it was good for the vampire to relax, her body still wounded. But she missed her. Curiously, what should have passed like water under a bridge was in her like a dam of dry leaves and branches, flooding the water. Not like other times, this girl still in her. In the past few days it has become common for the renegade to lose herself in thoughts, Laura smiling, Laura worried, Laura undressed - the last one made Carmilla gasp with desire - but it was inevitable, listening to the Galician's heart took her body from untimely reactions.

On one of these days, absorbed in any good morning, or preventing her more logical thoughts, the brunette walked up the main street, wanted to see her, even if from a distance, what would be wrong with that? She leaned against the end of an alley near the Hollis tailor shop, as Laura always waddled with the bags, playing with her balance on the curb and taking a slide to fall sitting down.

The slight rush for the fall made Carmilla smile for no reason, as well warmed her chest. Laura wore her blue cloak, her hair in a braid left over her back, and a thick denim overalls covered her legs into her snow boots.

Perhaps the vampire let her laugh pass her teeth to the other side of the street, for when Laura opened the stuck door, she aimed exactly the alley's direction, but noticing nothing she entered the store and locked the door.

"Miss Carmilla!" Shouted a young man jumping to grab the vampire. "You still here. That blonde woman took your backpack and said you were going to leave town, without saying goodbye," Euphoric the boy pulled on her cloak and everything more cloth he could grab. He was wearing a coat that was a little tight on his shoulders, the hair tucked into a worn brown hat.

"Hey calm down," The brunette hardly recognized him, without the grimy clothes and soot on his face.

"Don't tell me you had an amnesia like miss Perry or Dr. LaFontaine."

"Amnesia?"

"Yeah, it seems like everyone at the inn forgot what they had for dinner, I never forget, or what I eat at the breakfast, but they don't remember even the size of their own pants, they don't remember you miss," He said disgusted. "I don't know what happened to them. Tell me has something to do with that red-haired girl and the other with the gummy snake face?"

"Were you there? And remember?" Carmilla perceived sincerity in Guto's look without the hair in front. She can see the boy's eyes, violet.

"I remember everything, almost everything, it was strange when that redhead held me, I felt sleep," It was nothing much to talk about, but the young man seems to hold Castille blood, an ancient lineage of humans not so human. "So I slept, and when I woke up, everything was normal, except that no one remembers you, especially Laura."

"Like this?"

"She was calm, until the other day when she got angry with a client, she asked about three hundred questions from you, but then she didn't understand what I was saying, because she remembered nothing."

"Did she?" It could be, if a boy like Guto outmaneuvered Mina Halker. "You don't have things to do boy?"

"Miss Perry's flour for cookies!" He said, slapping his palm on his forehead and running, shaking a shopping list in his hand.

Carmilla stopped to think, and when she realized she was inside the tailoring with the door creaking with rust.

"We aren't open. You?" Laura brake in front of the vampire, crushing the knob between her fingers.

"Laura," She called and in that simple call the blonde's legs failed, before she could answer Carmilla jumped the counter taking the other in her arms.

"Carmilla? What are you doing?" Laura's voice failed, dropping the folders of drawings on the floor. An endless tide of consent held their gaze. The vampire's arms pulled the blonde as close as possible, with both feeling each other's breath. Carmilla closed her eyes, killing a short distance from the blonde's mouth.

It was a journalist's step back; it was a vampire's step forward. Laura's breathless breath and her heart racing. Carmilla surrounded the girl, literally melting with her back against the counter, approached pasting her foreheads, without looking away from the mesmerizing look she was giving and also receiving. The Galician's eyes twinkled in another color.

The vampire was almost revealed in the color of her eyes, and in the stark desire to devour her right there, it would be easy, even if she resisted, but there was a none need for strength, because the girl in her arms was handed out, not even Carmilla knew how to explain it, but she wanted it anyway. They remained in that hypnotic exchange for another endless minute, when the instinct spoke louder, claiming what was hers and, the brunette's lips went down to the blonde's neck, who lost her strength having to support her upper body over the counter hanging the head back, exhaling the chest air pumping.

Her veins ... the heart ... the body ... the blood ... the heat ... everything ... I want everything, thought the vampire while treading timid kisses on the journalist's neck, before being more than ready to mark the skin on your lips.

"Laura, where did you get these moose leather supports? Who broke the latch?" LaF was examining the dented knob. Until your attention turns to the crackling sound on the counter. "It's everything okay?" Asked to the blonde's red face and the brunette two steps to the side rubbing her cheek - Laura's fingerprints.

"They break the latch."

"What?!"

"I wonder, rust may have helped, but..."

"Well, see you," Carmilla said, passing between them.

"Wait," Laura tried to call, but she got stuck by Mr. Galiger, and his three daughters' dresses that resembled a twenty-tier cake.