Jo pulled away after what seemed like just a moment, the longest moment
that Shane had ever lived. Her breath was labored and she felt light
headed and Jo licked her neck with a gentle tongue, picking up the
straggling drop of blood.

Jo reached down, taking a small knife from her pocket and Shane
stiffened, but Jo shook her head, cutting her finger and Shane saw the
hot red blood there, and Jo smeared it on the place she’d just bitten.
Shane felt a soft heat there and a sudden flash of something in her
belly. The wounds closing instantly as the blood disappeared into
Shane’s skin. Shane put her hand to her neck, finding nothing there,
not even fresh wetness.

“You are going to feel weak for a moment, but then rather immortal.
Don’t think you are.” Jo said and Shane took her hand, kissing the
blood away from the gash on her finger, tasting the copper and the
iron, and something else, power. She lapped at the blood, sighing at
the taste on her palette, never having been into blood play.

“Oui, power; forbidden power and a lust for a life that will never be.”
Jo said, not having intended to allow her to take the single drop of
blood, but she had. No one had ever taken blood from her, and she
didn’t know what a single drop would do. Jo flirted with the danger,
but she pushed the thought back, Shane suckling on the finger and
pulling away when the wound healed quickly.

Shane rocked back and forth on her knees, looking down at her hands as
they seemed to shimmer and Jo stood, moving to her desk. She yanked the
bottom drawer out, breaking the lock and bending down. She took out a
ring, and a piece of leather cord, and moved to Shane. She let the ring
dangle for a moment and she grabbed it and balled it up in her fist.

“You are Tina’s but you are under my protection. This ring means just
that, you are not to be harmed, ordered or taken by anyone but Tina.
Unless she says so, do you understand Shane?” Shane nodded and then Jo
said, “Or me. Do you understand Shane? Susan is not your Mistress, nor
is she to order you around in any way unless Tina tells you so.”

“Yes.” Shane said, as Jo tied the leather around her neck, seeing that
the ring was silver, and had engravings on it. Shane touched it, hot
from being in Jo’s clenched fist.

“It says, ‘Protection – Destiny – Love – Death – Life .’” Jo stated and
Shane nodded, and Jo grinned as Shane’s face changed as she spoke the
words.

“Mine once said the same, but in a fit of anger, I mashed it to a small
pulp.” Jo grinned, helping Shane to her feet and Shane saw the silver
mass around her neck, perfectly round, the edges of the engraving still
evident. Shane reached out, touching it and Jo allowed her that, a few
inches shorter than Shane.

“Let’s deliver you to your Mistress.” Jo said, leading Shane back to Tina, to her first day of servitude.

Jo walked Shane down the stairs, knowing in her mind that something was
amiss in the world. She could feel the magical powers swirling and in
her vampire vision, which was now in high gear, she could see it.

Auras of greens and blues and oranges played all around her, swirling
against a low background hum that ebbed and flowed, like a pulse,
changing people, altering their inhibitions. Jo simply smiled. There
had been a time where she’d have played the hero and tried to fix the
wrongs of the world. Now she allowed the world to go insane; it was no
longer her fight to fight or her cross to bear.

~*~*~*~*~*
Demon
2.11.05
Janet Marie

All that’s left is the evil I feed
The world use to be a scary place
Now it’s turning into Satan’s playground
Since you’ve help me be
The demon I was meant to be