Divine Empress of Blood

“So you’re saying that the vampire situation is resolved, but now there’s another threat we have to deal with, one we know nothing about?”

“Essentially, yes.”

I look over to Nia, we planned what to say regarding the vampire incident so Ingrid’s power can’t tell we’re not telling the truth. At least I hope so. Nia said something is blocking Ingrid’s power, making her not able to tell that Nia is said vampire. She also had a theory that the protection would extend to me, as long as I don’t directly lie.

“So, how did you resolve the vampire situation?”

“Well, I was completely outclassed, she knocked me out, telling me that I won’t find her anymore. Then I woke up on a rooftop, and then I was attacked. Out of nowhere the vampire was between me and the attacker. At the time I thought the vampire was attacking me, but she got caught in the crossfire and had her entire torso blown to kingdom come, dying in front of me.”

I look at Ingrid’s face, trying to tell if the ruse worked or not. I think it did, as she’s not that good at keeping her facial expressions under control when she’s not in her Mystica disguise.

“So, how powerful is this, Angelic Succubus? That’s a weird race. Nothing I’ve heard about before.”

“Nia says she’s probably more powerful than her as she is right now.”

Of course, "as she is right now" means goddess form. I'm not technically lying, so anything pertaining to her vampire strength should pass through the human lie detector I'm talking to.

“Hmm. Yes I can see how that’s a problem. Are you sure you want to be a part of this, Faith?”

“Positive. Nia is helping me get over my trauma. We just need her location, we just need to be able to track her. I don’t want another repeat of the docks and engage before we know enough about her.

Ingrid looks between me and Nia, giving us a warm smile. No doubt she’s primarily happy because now she has a reason to stay on good terms with the HDA, but I’ll let her take advantage of our relationship. As long as she doesn't push us, or Nia, too far. I feel like I'm slowly growing apart from the HDA, probably because I've started to realize the gravity of the changed, especially the potential avatars. Nia really likes to come up with names for things.

“Very well. I’ll do what I can and keep you posted.”

The next few weeks fall into a rhythm, me and Faith spend time together in the evenings when we don’t have, “work”. She wasn’t too happy to know I’d still be doing the whole Empress of Blood thing, a name she found quite funny, but once she saw who my usual targets were, she didn’t say anything else, and didn’t bring it up again.

I’ve had to change how I execute my missions, since I can’t really give Ingrid any more reason to believe the vampire is alive. She probably knows about the immortality, but there has been no signs of the vampire for a long time now, so she’s sort of given up. It’s become a bit easier to assassinate. I can create blood bullets, essentially shaping them into rifle bullets and then using my wardrobe ability to give them the looks, and as far as I can tell metallic composition leaving remnants of a proper bullet behind. I still don’t know completely how that transformation works, but it's not really a pressing matter. 

At university me and Faith usually only see each other during lunch. We’ve got a regular spot at the campus cafe, I paid the staff to keep it reserved for us, so she can pretend to feed me. I usually only order a cup of coffee, mixing in the life force. It’s not that peculiar to not eat during lunch time, as I can just pretend to have eaten earlier or not be hungry, it’s more for appearance sake, and that I get to spend time with Faith.

Towards the end of the third week, we still have nothing about the Angelic Succubus. I’ve investigated her parents, and found no apparent connection, but I know there is one. I’ve told Faith about my theory. She appreciated the fact that I told her, even though I kept it from her for a few days just to get a tiny bit more information. She told me that even if I have no information, she’d want to know my theories.

That weekend I did something that changed our dynamic a bit. Usually Faith stayed over 2-3 times a week at my place, but I casually threw out a joke-ish comment about how she basically lived here. She turned around, stared into my eyes. The next day she was moving in. I was taken by surprise, she didn’t say anything, but obviously I didn’t mind. She mainly brought clothes and personal belongings, so we went shopping for a wardrobe and other things that a normal living being would need.

It’s now the day after she moved in, we’ve cleaned out her old apartment and dismantled the security, and I’m in my office running simulations and scouring The Board for potential missions.

“Nia?”

I spin my chair around to see Faith in her nightgown, a feast for sore eyes. She walks over and sits in my lap. I’ve turned into something of a personal chair since we got together, I like it though.

“Hmm? Did you need anything?”

“Mhm, Ingrid wanted to ask you something, so she sent me a message. Figuring I’d have a better time convincing you than she would.”

She’s right. I am way more inclined to accept a proposal from Faith than I am from her. I don’t really mind, as Faith wouldn’t ask me if it’s something she doesn’t want me to do.

“Sure, what is it she wants me to do?”

“Well technically she wants us. She has a hearing with some government members, judicial, politicians, the likes. So she wants us to attend with her. It’s about establishing some proper rights for changed, as well as figuring out the proper terminology with which to call us.”

“Mm, sure, unless you don’t want me to go.”

“No, I want to do this. The government is doing too many shady things as it is, seeing as there are no legal issues that can get them into trouble. I do have one problem though, I have nothing to wear, so I’ll have to go shopping for something appropriate. No, I don’t want your blood dress thing, it doesn’t feel right.”

I tried making her clothes the same way I do mine, apparently it feels weird, like something crawling on her skin. I don’t feel that, but it’s probably because it’s mine. There are no problems apparently as long as the blood is still connected to me, I have no idea how that works.

“Sure, where were you thinking?”

“I don’t know, probably something around the mid price range.”

Mid price range? Does she not realize who her girlfriend is?

“Nope. Not happening. I’m taking you to a tailor to get a custom made outfit, multiple actually while we’re there.”

“Um. Are you sure? I know you have money, but aren’t custom made outfits of your standard really expensive?”

Oh, this is going to be fun. I turn us around and log myself into my off-shore account. Showing Faith my balance.

“1,2...8...8 zeroes. What the fuck Nia? You have a quarter of a billion in your account? How?”

“Well. You know that month you were uh, “hunting” me? Well I sort of did a new job every night. Usually it takes a ton of planning, but due to my blood abilities it makes it laughably easy to take out high value targets. Usually people have issues with infiltration or a marksman wouldn’t have a good vantage point. I can move my blood according to my will, so I can quite literally create a bullet that bends and curves. Taking out rival leaders in businesses, mafia, etc. Makes a lot of money when you do it enough.”

Faith just stares at me with her mouth agape. I take advantage of this and slither my tongue into her mouth.

“My girlfriend is rich. Very, very rich. Are you sure you’re okay spending it on me? It’s not exactly money obtained through legal means, but it’s still yours?”

Oh my sweet little fox.

“It’s fine. I’ve already invested a lot into different holdings and things that accumulate over time, so even if I spent everything in my account I would still have a few hundred thousand a month to use after I’ve paid for everything I need to do. My time to make a rule. You can freely spend a million a month, I’ll get you a card. If you need more than that, just talk to me. Use it on yourself, HDA, I don’t care, it’s yours. I won’t take no for an answer, okay?”

Faith looks at me for a second, before letting out a sigh and starts giggling.

“Guess I’m a gold digging fox.”

I pull her closer, resting my chin between her ears. Whispering seductively into one of her ears.

“I don’t mind you know? You’re paying with your body after all.”

We spend the next few days replacing Faith’s wardrobe with clothes of my choosing, mostly. She picks a lot of comfy clothes, but I want her to look good in anything, so I’m deciding most of her every-day and formal wear. 

Now then. I guess it’s time for politics.