“Your heart is beating…”  Susan said and Jo nodded, pain gripping her where Susan touched her, but she didn’t make her pull away.  “Your heart never beats.  Jo, when was the last time you fed?”  Jo said nothing, shaking her head back and forth, she didn’t want to feed anymore; it was a hunger she could beat.

            “Jo.  Slow down, you are ravishing your own body.”  Susan commanded as she pinned Jo to the wall, and Jo’s breath finally caught up to her, breathing harder and faster, her heart feeling like it was going to explode.  Blood began to seep from the corners of her mouth.  She swallowed it back, only for it to rise again.  She began to pant, a slow trickle escaped her nose and Jo’s hair hung in her eyes as she fought for control. 

            Susan pressed her hand harder to the young vampire’s chest, and something began to happen.  A soft indigo glow around her fingertips began to radiate, then pulse with the now slowing heart beat.  “You have to calm down, Jo, slowly, take control.  You’re burning from the inside out.”  She urged her and Jo looked down, teeth gritted and fangs bared.

            Jo slowly slid down the wall, the energy sapped from her but Susan held on, dropping to her knees and tossing a look at a young waiter that had turned the corner.

            “Leave.”  Susan commanded in a deep voice and he did, tucking tail and running. 

            Susan felt her hand heat against Jo’s chest, felt energy surging in her body; her skin seemed barely thick enough to contain it.  She allowed it to build, then flow and ebb and build again.  It felt like a great sea moving within.  She closed her eyes and felt nothing but Jo’s need and her strength filling her up, replenishing what was spent. 

The vision began to shape again, in Jo’s mind, ignited and backflowed through Susan’s hand, up her arm, into her head.  She threw her head back, clenched her jaws, and moaned. 

A girl child crying a pale adult hand tight around her wrist, pulling her, a cold low voice demanding, warning, threatening.  And then blackness.  Blackness and silence.  Jo fell into Susan’s arms, and she held her, rocked her, crooning “we’ll find them, Jo, we will”.