I pounded my fists against the punching bag, the gloves I wore barely protecting my hands from the force. There was something in the rhythmic sound that soothed me.

The only thing that might have been more soothing would be doing this to a leech, but sadly they never stood still long enough to take it.

Every time I threw my arm forward towards the bag, the skin on my chest under the taped gauze ached and pulled, a tactile reminder of the injustice of the world in which we inhabited.

"Is that good for your wound?"

The leech had snuck up on me, her voice breaking through the beat of my hits. I did not react, but kept up my assault on the bag as if I had not been surprised by her sudden presence.

"Well, it's your body," she said, her voice coming closer.

"Is it?"

"That's a good question. Can vampires truly own human beings simply through an exchange of funds? I had not realized I had purchased a philosopher."

I clenched my teeth and unleashed another round on the punching bag.

She moved over and hopped up to perch sideways on the seat of an exercise bike and began to watch me.

"I don't know why I don't come here more often. I usually avoid the scent, but there are perks to being present, I see. Perhaps I should even exercise, myself, from time to time."

One of the best things about the gym was that the leech never came down here. Hopefully she did not ruin that aspect of it.

"I'm told you're in excellent shape," she commented, "Although it seems rather apparent to me without the need of expert opinions."

"All the better to stake bloodsuckers."

She chuckled, her amusement grating. "Any bloodsuckers in particular you want to start with?"

"Oh, one or two."

"Perhaps, if I could trust you, you could join my guard and the opportunity to stake a bloodsucker might potentially come up from time to time."

"No thanks."

"Why not? You'd clearly be good at it. You're strong and nearly fearless."

"You're not stupid enough to trust me, Bloodsucker."

She smiled again. "I daresay; that almost sounded like a compliment."

"You wish."

"Perhaps."

She stood up and moved closer, hips swinging. She grasped the bag and stabilized it on the other side. I kept punching.

Unfortunately, she did not stop talking. "I think, regardless of your trustworthiness, I shall have you begin guard's training. If you're feeling up to it," she said.

"Why would you let me?"

"Oh, I don't know. I suppose if you do become my faithful slave at some point, I would be most disappointed to have wasted any precious time with you. You're not getting any younger, human."

"Neither are you."

She laughed at me. "True, but I am largely unaffected. I still look exactly like the nineteen-year-old I once was." She met my eyes. "How old are you, Jamie?"

"Twenty-seven."

She nodded. "So young, but not so young. You've done a lot in those few years, haven't you?"

"Enough."

"So tell me, Jamie, how many bloodsuckers have you managed to stake so far?"

"None."

"Now that is a lie and I know, because I am a master of the art."

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because I'm curious about the pedigree of my human."

"Or because you want to run me back to the council for punishment?" I slammed the punching bag harder with each syllable.

"I would never do that. I don't like to share my toys. Why do you think I live alone amongst my humans?"

Ignoring her question, I pounded the bag with several hits from my right hand. It annoyed me how much resistance she offered on the other side.

"Because that is how I prefer it. I could make my own fledglings, I could hire young vampires as guards, but instead I have my humans trained and armed to keep out the rest of the world. I do things my own way. And, I remain curious about how many you've killed."

"Twelve."

She seemed completely unconcerned with my response, her smile unwavering. "When was your first?"

I slammed the bag harder. My fists would likely be bleeding if it were not for the protective gloves. "When I was almost seventeen, my home and family were destroyed by leeches without warning. My parents were killed, my sisters and I dragged away. The one who took me was careless. I got my hands on a branch when we stopped. I snapped it and shoved the sharp end through its ribcage and it crumbled to dust."

I must have imagined a hint of sympathy which was swallowed up in her nonchalance. "Must have been a young one then, if you finished it off so easily. Still, I am impressed."

Why had I told her that? There was no taking back the bitter words so I changed the topic. "I want to see your database."

"Very well."

That was suspiciously easy. Too easy.

"You're not going to argue?"

"No."

"Really?"

She looked at me with wide brown eyes. "Do you want me to make it more difficult? I could force you to grovel for the privilege. I could give you a quest to complete first, if you wish?" She looked amused by her own words yet again, although I had no idea what was going through that mind.

"No."

"Then, I said I would allow it. I must caution, though, that even if you do find whoever you're looking for, I'm not letting you leave.

Not surprising, but I would deal with that bridge when I came to it.

"But, if some day, you're very, very good, and I believe I can trust you not to get yourself killed, I might just turn a blind eye to matters of this other vampire you have a vendetta against," she said and she smiled wickedly at me.

I stopped slamming the punching bag. The room sounded quiet without the rhythmic sound of strikes against it. "Why would you let me kill a vampire?"

She shrugged and let go of the punching bag and walked around me, like a predator circling prey. "There are only a select few vampires I actually care about, the rest are competition. We're meant to be mostly solitary predators. What allegiance do I owe the others?"

I had no response.

"I'll tell you something about vampires, Jamie, since you're apparently so determined to risk your fragile human life. This might actually help you out in the future, so heed my words. We aren't that much different than you humans, just a bit more of whatever we once were. Many of us are terribly shallow and vain, and most of us tend to pick our fledglings based largely on their beauty. After all, who wants to look at an unattractive face essentially forever?"

She continued after a slight pause. "Unfortunately, when you pick new vampires solely by their looks, you don't necessarily get the brightest and best of humanity. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying pretty people can't be intelligent, I'm merely saying it's random chance. So most vampires are physically attractive, but many don't have much going on upstairs."

"I can believe that."

She laughed. It did not matter what I did, it seemed that she was always amused at my expense no matter what I tried. "There are obvious exceptions, because here I stand before you. Beauty and brains, but I must tell you, my sire did not stop to look past the packaging when he turned me. I could have been as dumb as a stump and he would have had no idea until afterwards."

"Seems a bit rich that you're complaining about vampires' shallowness when you yourself said you collect lovely males."

"Oh, so you were listening! That's true, but you don't see me turning all of you into indefinite beings, do you? And that's not my only requirement when I choose a human."

"Yes, you like a spark of rebellion to break." My own words gave me pause. Was I feeding into the leech's interest by fighting her? But, what other choice did I have besides succumbing, since she had already seen through my false apathy? Could I pretend to conform to her wishes so well that she might actually believe me enough to let her guard down?

"Well, you're right, I do like a spark of rebellion. And I like it when humans are interesting. You know what, Jamie? You are extremely interesting."

"Hardly."

She simply smiled, an expression full of secrets and promise.

I was being drawn in by a monster who I should feel nothing but revulsion for. She was getting in my mind in a way that I wanted to fight, but simultaneously seemed unable to resist.

Focusing on the pain branding my skin, I left the leech alone in the gym.

* * * * *

She stayed away from me again for several days. There was a pattern, she would aggravate me until I wanted to shove her out into the midday sun, then retreat and leave me to stew.

It was impossible to know what she hoped to gain.

It was not as if I forgot about her presence, like a looming predator constantly hanging over me. The brand still hurt, but I was distracted from plotting my eventual escape by Marcel's interruption of another meal.

"Hey, Little Human." He sat down next to me as if he wanted to suddenly be friends. I was not buying it.

"Hey, Agro."

"How are you feeling?"

"Wonderful. What do you want?"

Marcel smiled amiably, but I remained unconvinced. There was no way he went from being aggressive to laid back so quickly.

"I hear you're going to be starting guard training."

"Yeah, seems so."

He frowned a bit. "I don't know why she's trusting you."

"She's not. The bloodsucker knows I'm going to stake her some day."

Marcel swore. "Damn, man, you just want me to pound you into the ground, don't you?"

All traces of false geniality disappeared. He was tense and ready to fight again. This here was the Agro I knew and, well, not loved, but expected.

"No, but you wouldn't be able to even if you tried. While you've been living as a lap dog to a bloodsucker, I've been out dealing with them."

"Listen, Little Human, if you dare to lay one finger on her, I will kill you." He pushed up and backwards aggressively, looming over me in a petty attempt at intimidation.

His ingratiating words almost made me taste vomit in the back of my throat. I stood up and held myself at the ready in case this time he was not all talk. "You're so terrifying, the leeches I've killed have nothing on you, Agro. Oooh, look, I'm shivering. Seriously though, your devotion would be impressive if it were not so disgusting. Have you fallen for the leech? Can a human fall for an undead bloodsucker?"

"I would be anything she needs me to be, and I hope that she needs me to take you out, because—"

His unthinking dedication made me want to gag.

"Knock it off, Marcel," my roommate's voice came from behind me. "She won't be happy if you attack him while he's healing. Save it for the training ring."

"Oh, I will," Marcel said, backing off. It sounded like a promise and I was glad, because I was looking forward to making him eat dirt. It would be very satisfying.

"Come on," Stump said. I did, sending an expression of pure disbelief in Marcel's direction. There was no way I was letting him think I was intimidated by him.

"Where are we going?"

"Our mistress says that she would allow you to look through the database, so it's time for you to get started."

For once there was nothing to complain about since the leech had me doing exactly what I wanted to be doing.

Stump led me into a dark room. We passed several monitors. I had seen such tech before but had scarcely had any contact with it. Even as a child, before my home had been destroyed, our tech was rudimentary at best.

Of course, the leech had managed to grasp her claws into this aspect of the old world, too. Unlike the rest of her lair, these rooms seemed a hodgepodge of whatever her slaves could cobble together. There was none of the orderly design of the rest of the building.

He led me down rows of cabinets and shelving, until we reached a small terminal. There was a mangy office chair in front of the desk and Stump sat down on it. He began to type something into the keyboard, and the screen began loading something.

"So, maybe it's obvious, but don't go mentioning this to anyone. I was stupid to have told you as much as I did, but now that you know, just keep your mouth shut."

"Or what?"

"Or you'll make your own life a living hell."

"And that differs from now, how exactly?"

"You have no concept of how good you have it right now."

I scoffed. "Who am I going to tell?"

"No one."

"Fine. Did the bloodsucker put you up to warning me?"

"No. Also, I think calling her bloodsucker violates the terms of our deal."

I shrugged. "Don't blame me if you were too specific."

"I don't know why she likes you."

"If you figure it out, tell me, and I'll start doing the opposite."

"If only it were so easy. Anyway, now you're loaded up. Our search at this point is only comparing pictures with the security cameras, so unless you have a picture..."

"Obviously I do not."

"Then you'll have to navigate between the menu and checking each entry individually, if you want to see them all. It's going to take you hours, days perhaps."

"That's fine."

"Well, I'll leave you to it, then."

I made a wordless sound of agreement and Stump left me sitting in the darkness, only a lone bare light bulb giving light to the corner.