Title: The Bitch and the Beast

Author: Jos Mous

Email: wotan_anubis@yahoo.com

Part Seven

It could've lasted centuries, it could have lasted years, but unfortunately it only lasted seconds. It's that damn need for all living beings on this earth to breathe that Sam and Nicole broke apart so soon. They were both speechless, not really certain what one should do or say in a situation like this. Nicole seemed rather shocked while am had a huge grin on her face.

"What was that?" Nicole whispered softly.

"A kiss." Sam deadpanned.

"I know that." Nicole said smiling. "But what _caused_ it is what I like to know."

"Animal attraction?" Sam suggested.

"I hope not." Nicole said honestly.

"Love?"

"That sounds much better."

The girls leaned in for another kiss.

"You do realise we're facing a whole world of problems." Sam said.

"I don't care." Nicole responded.

"Just the answer I wanted to hear."

Nicole sighed. "We should probably get out of here right about now."

"Yeah," Sam whispered sadly. "Hey, I got permission to see Lily after school, wanna come?"

"Are you suggesting a date?"

"I wouldn't exactly call going to the hospital to visit a friend of mine a date, but at least it'll give us some time to be together. So what do you say?"

"I'd like that."

"Great, I'll see you after school."

Sam kissed Nicole one more time for good measure, then left the Novak. Nicole stared at the door through which the brunette just left. They would be able to talk to each other again after school, but the schoolday seemed to take much too long. She had a huge urge to just run after her, grab her and never let go, but she knew she couldn't do that. It was a rather painful moment when she realised that this were probably going to be the longest hours in her entire life.

And it would probably be little comfort to her if she knew that Sam had the exact same problem.

Some people say that 'time heals all wounds'. Well, forget it. Time is a very cruel being. Every time you have a little fun it goes by much too fast and each time you're bored or in pain it seems to last forever. And right now Time delighted in going extra slow for two girls. Two girls who the rest of the world thought were mortal enemies. Yes, Time thought it very nice to see the two of them trying to be as close together as possible without anyone noticing. But unfortunately it could only go unnoticed by staying as far away from each other as possible. So what it basically came down to was the two of them exchanging glances whenever they could.

However, Time is not completely without mercy so when he thought the girls had suffered long enough he allowed to let the day go by so they could meet each other again at the hospital. But, Time wouldn't be Time if he didn't choose that moment to speed up again a little.

"I never would've thought a schoolday could last so unbelievably long." Sam complained.

"Well, it's over now." Nicole said.

"I can't believe I actually missed you." Sam said.

"You missed me?" Nicole asked amused.

"Well… yeah." Sam admitted. "Did you?"

"Oh, no. I was with me the whole time." Nicole said.

"You should consider yourself lucky that you can spend so much time with you."

"I dunno. You can hang out with Sam an awful lot."

"Yeah, but Sam's no fun if Nicole isn't around. She gets so depressed."

They walked down the perfectly white hallways in silence after that, simply enjoying the fact that they were together. No one who saw the two of them walking together could imagine that there was a time that they weren't together. Except for one or two bigots who thought it was 'evil' or 'wrong'. Then a nurse came walking down the corridor and Nicole could feel Sam stiffen slightly.

"Samantha." The nurse said coldly.

"Nina." Sam greeted back with an equally chilly voice.

It wasn't until they had turned a corner before Sam relaxed somewhat again.

"What was that all about?" Nicole asked.

"Sibling rivalry." Came the short reply.

"You're not going to explain that a little more, huh?"

"Nope."

"You know you can tell me everything." Nicole chuckled briefly. "And I won't even use it against you."

"Don't say that. You're not like that. Not any more."

"I used to be, though."

Sam was silent for a few moments. Nicole kept beating herself up for everything she did the last years, and while Sam couldn't exactly blame her, she still felt she should do something about it.

"Nina's one month older than me." Sam suddenly said. "She tries to boss me around and always snatches away my kills in front of my nose. Needless to say, we don't get along very well."

"Don't you just hate it when that happens?"

The door to the room where Lily was came in sight and Nicole faltered in her pace, a slight hint of panic on her face.

"I… I'll just wait here."

Sam looked at her for a moment, then decided it would probably be better if Nicole stayed away. She might want to prove that she had changed at least a little, but now certainly wasn't the time. Besides, there would be questions if Sam would show up in apparent harmony with the blonde.

"I'll be right back."

"Take your time."

It was pretty dark in Lily's room. Main reason being that the curtains were drawn shut. Lily herself lay in bed, her head seemed to have sunken into her pillow. How could Sam not have noticed how unhealthily pale she looked? And the worst part was that she actually looked better than a few days ago.

"Hey." Sam greeted. "How's it going?"

"Great." Lily said. "I can go home tomorrow according to the docs."

"Mind if I open the curtains?" Sam asked while she made her way towards the window.

"I'd rather you didn't. The sunlight bounces of all these white walls and it hurts my eyes."

"So, how are you?" Lily asked as Sam sat down on a chair beside her. "Still grounded?"

"Unfortunately yes. I'm still locked up. I don't know how I'll last four months."

"You'll make it." Lily assured her. "You've faced worse."

(Ain't that the truth.) Sam thought.

"And how are the others?"

Sam relaxed a little after this question. She simply set her mind on auto-pilot and talked about everything that happened while Lily was in the hospital. Which wasn't really a great big lot, since Sam wisely gave the girl the censored version. So she talked merrily about how basically nothing interesting happened.

That is, until Lily yawned, because that's when Sam noticed a rather unpleasant detail.

Lily's teeth were already sharpening.

Part Eight

Nicole could sense something was very, very wrong as Sam once again entered the hallway. Her suspicions were quickly confirmed when Sam more or less collapsed. She sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall with her knees drawn up under her chin. Nicole, with her limited experience of comforting others, sat down besides her and draped her arm around her shoulders.

"How is she?" Nicole already knew the answer to that one, but she wanted to hear it out loud.

Sam sighed and rested her head against the wall. "She's in between." Was the cryptic response. "She's not a vampire yet, but you can't exactly call her human either." Sam buried her face in her hands. "How could I've missed it?" She said. "One more day, one more nightly visit and she'd be dead."

"Come on, you can't blame yourself for everything."

"Yes, I can. I should've noticed, done something."

Noticing that comforting didn't really help, Nicole decided to do one of the things she was best at. She got angry. "Look, it's done. Stop lamenting over the past and _do_ something."

Sam looked angry at Nicole for a moment, then grinned. There was a small glint in her eyes that was very determined and slightly frightening.

"You're right. I should do something." She got up from the floor. "Come to my house around midnight. We're going on a date." But the tone of her voice indicated that this wasn't going to be a date, but something else entirely.

The screen was nice and white. It shouldn't be, but unfortunately it was. It should be filled with words and Sam was the woman who should put them there. But the words didn't come. She was too nervous to focus. She had a deadline hanging over her head, but she didn't care. As cliché as it may sound she had a friend to save and writing something for the school newspaper just didn't seem very important right about now. There was also one other tiny thing that kept nagging at the back of her head.

Why had she asked Nicole? She'd only get in the way, and most likely get into trouble. The answer was simple of course, she wanted Nicole to be near her.

Even if it meant putting her in danger?

The door to the room opened and her mother appeared in the doorway."Dinner in five minutes." She informed.

"Thanks mom." Sam said absentmindedly. "I'll be there."

"How was Lily?" Jane asked.

Sam sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Pretty good. She's going home tomorrow."

(Which is probably the one thing she _really_ shouldn't do.) She thought ruefully.

"That's good. Well, I'll see you in five minutes?"

"Sure mom."

Sam breathed a sigh of relief when the door closed again.

Five more minutes until dinner.

Two more hours until sunset.

Six more hours until she could see Nicole again.

How come the good things always come last?

Sam sighed and got up from her chair. She walked over to her closet and searched through her clothes until she stumbled upon a small black box. Smiling, she put it in her pocket and then returned to her work.

"I should stop with these nightly visits. It really screws up my sense of time."

"Hey Nicole, I'm glad to see you too." Sam said as the blonde walked past her and into the hallway. Before she closed the door she looked out to see one rather large white wolf sitting next to a tree.

Smiling, Sam closed the door and turned around only to feel Nicole's arms being swung around her.

"Hi." The blonde greeted before placing her lips on Sam's.

"I wanted to give you something." Sam said after they broke apart. An uncharacteristically shyness came over the werewolf when she reached down her pocket and took out a small black box. She opened it and took out a rather strange looking necklace. Nicole, with her fine eye for jewellery of any kind, noted that the necklace wasn't silver, but some alloy that looked like silver.

"It's the symbol of my pack." Sam explained. "And I want you to have it."

"I…" Nicole wasn't sure what to say. The whole werewolf-thing was a huge part in Sam's life and the blonde felt like an outsider when it came to that. Then she realised that this was probably Sam's way of telling her that she wanted her as a part of the whole werewolf-thing. Too choked up by a sudden flood of emotions Nicole merely stared into Sam's eyes. She could see Sam growing more concerned by the second. Gathering every ounce of control she had over her vocal cords she opened her mouth to say something.

"Thank you."

Sam's face broke out in a warm smile as she placed the necklace around the blonde's neck. They were silent for a few moments after that, frozen in place, staring into the other's eyes. But everything has to come to an end and at long last Sam remembered why she had asked Nicole over in the first place.

"Come on," Sam said as she grabbed her coat. "Let's go."

"Wait, aren't you grounded?" Nicole was pretty sure that Sam had every intent to obey her mother's rules, so this sudden defiance came as a bit of a surprise.

"Yeah," Sam admitted. "But some things are more important. Like stopping some vampire so that one of my friends won't become one as well."

"Good point."

They walked towards the street when suddenly Sam growled something to the white wolf, who still sat beneath the tree. Although Nicole was very sure that Sam had _growled_ something instead of using actual human words she could still understand it.

"Thanks Brian, I'll take it from here."

The wolf nodded and dashed off leaving the two girls alone.

"Sam?" Nicole asked. "Is there something you haven't told me?"

"Like what?"

"Like how I can suddenly understand you when you're speaking werewolf-ish?"

"Oh, that." Sam said. "It's the necklace. It has a few… side-effects."

"It hasn't turned me into werewolf, has it?"

Sam laughed. "Of course not. I'd never do that to you. Unless you want to." Sam looked Nicole in the eyes and smiled. "Do you?"

Once again Nicole didn't manage to come up with a reply. If it weren't for the fact that Sam had looked ahead again after a few seconds

Nicole was pretty sure that she would've answered 'yes'.

Every town of a reasonable size has a 'bad part'. But where Sam and Nicole were walking now could only be described as the 'worst part'. Nicole was very nervous to say the least and the only reason that she hadn't run away screaming was the strangely reassuring presence of Sam's hand in her own. The people here also didn't look very normal and Nicole was convinced that at least half the people she saw here weren't human. Led by Sam the two girls turned a corner into an ill lit alley where -in bad horror movies- the hideous monster was about to slaughter another main character. In the back of the alley was a small door with a sign on it. Nicole had never seen the symbols -or whatever they were- on the sign before, but thanks to her necklace she could read them.

'Humans Not Allowed.'

Part Nine

Clive was a bartender. He had always been a bartender and he would probably always be a bartender. It was his job to serve people drinks and to pretend to be interested in their troubles. It was also his job to toss troublemakers and humans out of his establishment, so when a very uncertain looking human carefully entered through the door he stepped in front of the bar with every intent to show the human the door again. But seconds later another human-looking figure entered. Clive knew this one. It was one of those young werewolves roaming around town and they generally liked to hang out here after a successful hunt. So Clive reasonably assumed that the blonde was a werewolf as well and got behind his bar again.

"What'll it be Sam?" He asked the dark-haired werewolf as she took a seat.

"I'll have a coke." She answered.

One eyebrow went up in surprise, well, for so far as reptilian creatures _have_ eyebrows. "A coke? Long time since I poured one of those."

"But you do have it, right?" Sam asked persistent.

"Of course. What kind of bartender would I be if I didn't have everything my clients could possible want?" Clive directed his attention to the blonde, who still seemed rather uncomfortable. "And what would you like, miss?"

"I think I'll have a coke as well."

"Two cokes in one night? I might have to order more." Clive leaned forward and placed his arms on the bar. "Tell me, what are you?" He asked the blonde.

"She's human." Sam said. "But she's also a member of my pack, so don't get any ideas about throwing her out."

Knowing very well how much damage an angry werewolf pack could do to his establishment Clive wisely kept his mouth shut. So instead he just poured the drinks and left the girls alone.

"Sam, what kind of place is this exactly?" Nicole asked.

"A non-human bar, what else?"

"And we're here because…?"

"Because I need info on that vamp. And this is the best place to get it." Sam answered.

"The bartender, what is he?" Nicole asked, indicating the large green scaly creature currently giving some six-armed thing a glass with a red liquid in it.

"Who, Clive? He's a gargoyle."

"Right." Nicole said slowly. "How come I never noticed stuff like this before?"

"Because you're human." Was Sam's simple explanation. "No offence, but it's really not that difficult to hide from you."

At that moment something that Nicole could only describe as a 'slimy yellow guy' thought it necessary to introduce himself. Apparently no matter what species you are, there will always be males who think they're God's Gift To Women. His less-than-subtle lines like 'Can I get you a drink?' or 'Come here often?' were starting to make Sam pretty angry and Nicole suspected an outburst any moment. Fortunately it didn't come since a beautiful voice rung through the air saying: "Give it up Fergus, they have no interest in you."

The yellow thing looked angry at the speaker for a moment before returning to his own table. The speaker turned out to be a rather tall, slender woman. She could've passed for a normal human if it wasn't for the fact that she was completely white. Literally. She gracefully made her way to the bar and sat down next to Sam.

"Thanks Selina." Sam said.

"No problem. Tell me, who is the girl that has stolen your heart?"

Sam smiled. "Nic meet Selina, Selina meet Nicole."

"Hi." Nicole greeted the strange woman.

"Pleasure. Now then, how can I help you?"

"Some vamp's been eating off one of my friends. I was hoping you could help me out."

The woman's forehead furrowed into a frown. "Vampires usually don't come here. Mainly because we kill them on the spot. But I have heard of a female vampire coming into town about two weeks ago. I don't know where she is, but I do know she wants something very, very badly. She's also very powerful. A young cub like you is no match for her. If you face her you _will_ die."

"That was too weird for words." Were the first words Nicole said after leaving the bar.

"I'm sorry. I should've given advance warning I suppose." Sam said.

"It's OK. Just never do it again." Nicole was silent for a few moments. "You're gonna go after that vampire, aren't you?"

"I have to. She almost turned Lily and I'm gonna make her pay for it."

"Didn't you hear what that woman said? You'll die!" Nicole almost sounded desperate.

"Could be." Sam said casually.

"You can't do this to me Sam." Nicole sounded angry once again. "You can't just go off and get yourself killed."

"Watch me."

"Sam, I…" Nicole took a deep breath. If she was going to say this, she wasn't going to say it in anger. "I love you. God knows why, but I do. And I can't lose that. Not so soon, not ever. Why can't you just let someone else take care of it? I mean, you can bring your entire pack to back you up, right?"

"Yes. But I won't. This is _my_ responsibility and _I_ will take care of it."

Nicole sighed. "Fine. Go. But I'll be coming with you. If you're going to die, then at least have the decency to let me die with you."

"No. I have to do this on my own and that's final."

The rest of the walk was filled with silence.

Nicole stared at the rapidly departing figure of Sam. She knew that there was no way that she could stop the girl. But she'd be damned if she didn't try. Sam could start searching tomorrow night at the earliest. It was likely she wasn't going to find the vampire in one night. And Nicole was sure she could've figured something out by the time she did.

The blonde was about to sneak back into her house when somewhere someone suddenly clapped.

"Bravo. What a touching performance. I was quite moved by it." A woman stepped out of the shadows. She had flaming red hair, which only accentuated her incredibly pale face. "But I already know how the story ends. You see, the vampire suddenly appears out of the darkness, takes the girl and leaves. The heroine vows revenge of course, but she will be too late. For by the time she reaches the vampire the girl is already turned and the heroine, unable to kill the woman she loves, dies at her hands. It is such a tragic tale." The woman wiped away a tear that wasn't there. She quickly rushed over to Nicole and in one swift blow knocked her unconscious. She easily hauled the body over her shoulder and walked away.

Part Ten

"Smile!"

There was a large blinding flash as the vampire pressed the button on her camera.

"You didn't smile." She said disappointed. "Ah well, can't have it all, right?"

"What do you want?" Nicole asked.

"Oh you know, blood, power, blood, general mayhem and blood. What else is there?"

"Let me rephrase that. What do you want from _me_?"

"You?" The woman asked amused. "Why should anyone possibly want to have anything to do with you? No, you're a mere tool to get what I want." She seemed to be thinking for a moment. "As a matter of fact, you're nothing more than a jar of ink." She grabbed a knife from the nearby table. "I mean, I could use ballpoint pens, but that just lacks that certain 'je-ne-sais-quoi'." She walked over to Nicole and waved the knife in front of her face for the dramatic effect of it. "Now then, this is going to hurt."

Sam angrily threw her bag in the corner of her room. She hadn't seen Nic at school all day and that made her worried. Of course, it could have a simple explanation like the flu or something. But deep down in the back of her head a loud voice yelled that something was very wrong. And the fact that that voice was usually right didn't help. She paced up and down her room anxious, hating the fact that she couldn't do anything while it was still daytime. Sam froze mid-room when the familiar shape of her mother appeared in the doorway. She looked at her with barely controlled rage in her eyes, before she managed to hide it. Jane hadn't noticed it.

"What is it mom?"

Jane stepped further into the room and offered Sam an envelope. "Your friend Lily came over this afternoon and gave me this. She said you should read it as soon as possible."

"Thanks." As Sam took the envelope she could smell blood. A hundred possibilities about the contents flashed through her mind, none of them very pleasant. Needless to say, she really didn't want Jane to see whatever was inside, so she simply waited until her mother had left the room. Sam locked the door before she opened the envelope and took out a letter. Attached to the letter was a photograph showing Nicole tied in a chair with a large red ribbon wrapped around her like she was a present.

~ Dear Sam,
I have your new plaything. If you want her back… Well, let's just say you'll have to find me very fast.
Love,
Patricia ~

Sam took a closer look at the letter. Her eyes confirmed what her nose already suspected. It was written in blood. Nicole's blood. Sam stormed out of her room, grabbed her coat and left, not caring if anyone could see her. She heard the cries of her mother, but her brains didn't register it. The only thing she could think of was finding Nicole. And to very slowly torture the bitch who had kidnapped her to death.

One pair of brown eyes followed the raging Sam out of the house. He could tell that something was up. He could also tell that Sam would stop at nothing to do whatever she was going to do. He quickly turned around and ran. The others needed to know about this soon, or their secret might be revealed.

And that would have disastrous results for everyone.

(OK Sam, calm down. Don't want to storm into her room and frighten the crap out of her.) Sam took a few deep breaths and tried to clear her mind as best as possible. After she was certain she wasn't going to explode in a furious rage for at least half an hour she passed the threshold into Lily room.

"Lily? I've been told you were in…"

Sam's sentence slowly trailed off when she entered the room. The curtains were drawn shut and Lily sat huddled in a corner, wearing sunglasses. She didn't look up or do anything else for that matter to let Sam know that she knew that she was there.

"Lily? You alright?"

"Go away Sam." Lily said in a soft voice.

"What's wrong?"

(Like I need to ask.)

"Please, just go."

Sam walked over to Lily and sat down next to her.

"Come on, you can tell me."

"I can't. Please leave."

"Lily, I am not leaving this room until you tell me what's wrong."Lily sighed. "Look over there and tell me what you see." She pointed at a large mirror on the other side of the room.

Sam saw herself reflected in it, but not the girl she sat next to."The mirror's not working." Sam deadpanned.

"I think it's working properly, Sam." Lily chuckled humourlessly. "I'm a vampire." She said as if the realisation just struck her.

"Don't be silly."

Sam got up from the floor and yanked the curtains open. Lily flinched as sunlight filled the room, but otherwise nothing happened.

"You are not a vampire." She said as she sat down next to Lily again.

"Then why don't I have a reflection? Why can't I stand sunlight?" Lily grabbed her head in frustration. "And why do I have this overpowering urge to drink blood!"

"Brian, calm down, what's wrong?"

"I watched Sam's house, she's really pissed about something."

"How 'pissed' are we talking about exactly?"

"I'd say she's out hunting right now."

"Right, that would be problematic. I'll see if I can contact the others."

"Better hurry. Sam's probably going to do something very stupid."

"Who gave you that letter?"

"What letter?"

"The one you gave my mom."

"What are you talking about? I haven't been near your house all day."

"Don't lie to me, Lily." Sam said, her voice started to sound threatening.

Lily sighed and rested her head against the wall. Tears seemed to be filling her eyes and her body started to tremble. "I went to the theatre this afternoon. I don't know why. There was this… thing… there. Gave me the letter and told me to deliver it to your house. I… I couldn't do anything about it. It was like… She controlled my mind." Lily's voice was breaking and she was trembling uncontrollably. Sam wrapped her arms around the girl and tried to speak only soft and hopefully soothing words. But her mind had went into overdrive. Nicole was at the theatre and so was the vampire who had bitten Lily. It was strangely convenient that she had to kill just one thing to get revenge for them both. After Lily had stopped trembling Sam stood up and started to leave the room.

"Where are you going?"

"The theatre."

"I'm coming with you."

"That's really not a good idea."

"Look Sam, that thing made me what I am. I just know it did. And I'm not gonna rest before it's dead."

Sam smiled and put her arm around Lily's shoulder. "See? I told you you weren't a vampire."

"Since when did you become the expert on vampires?" Lily asked."I've had some experience with them. And believe me, if you really were a vampire you'd be on a killing spree right about now. You're just an almost-vampire."

"And that makes it all better?"

"Course it does. 'Cause now I don't have to kill you."

"You're acting very weird right now, you know that?"

Despite everything going on, Sam laughed. "Trust me, I'm gonna get a lot weirder before this is over."

Part Eleven

NOTE: This is really starting to turn out a LOT longer than I expected. I thought the last part was going to be the final part. Guess not, huh?

The sunlight was harsh and glaring. The fact that it was hidden behind the clouds didn't help much. Lily felt strangely detached from everything and everyone around her. The two of them were on their way to kill a _vampire_ and nobody knew about it. Everybody simply went on with their lives, completely oblivious to what was right under their noses. Sam didn't seem to be bothered by it much. Which called forth yet another range of questions for Lily. Like, how long did she know? How long has she hidden it? And have I ever really known her? Deciding to not let these questions distract her too much she started talking. About what she didn't know yet, but she'd make it up as she went."You know, somehow I can't remember the time when I liked sunlight." Lily looked up briefly only to reaffirm the fact that the pale sunlight was indeed hurting her eyes. Sunglasses had indeed been a good idea.

"Well if it helps, I can't really remember what it was like before I became a werewolf."

"You're a werewolf?" Lily asked amazed.

"Yeah. Didn't I tell you?"

"No."

"Oh. Well now you know."

"How long? Or were you born one?"

"Five months. Give or take a week."

"And in that time, how many vampires have you killed?"

"Well, let's see…" Sam looked up as she mentally counted each vamp-kill. "About eighteen kills."

"If I had become a 'real' vampire, would you've killed me?"

"I don't think I could." Sam responded honestly. "But if I couldn't there are lots of others who could."

Lily was silent as she tried to figure out how many 'others' there might be. And if they were all werewolves. She put her hand in her pockets when she noticed that they were empty.

"Do you have any stakes or something?"

"No need to." Sam said as a wide grin appeared on her face. "I got something even more effective."

"Like what?"

"Like me."

Nicole was cut, bruised, battered and even tortured. She didn't know where she was, what time it was or when the bitch who took her decided it was time for some more 'fun to pass the time'. But strangely enough Patricia hadn't fed of her, which was the one thing Nicole expected her to do. She was a vampire after all and isn't sucking blood what vampires do? The door to her small room opened and in the entranceway stood once again the bitch. She had placed bright lamps behind her so she could make a dramatic entrance each time she visited. While this seemed completely ludicrous to Nicole, she couldn't deny the fact that it was something she or Mary Cherry would do. A small irrational part of her brain found it strange what it people wouldn't do to get attention, while the rest of her brains was focused entirely on the form slowly and gracefully entering the room. Nicole wasn't scared, she was much too angry for that. After all, it was her experience that people get most scared when they were abused mentally. And while a lot of physical abuse certainly had a mental aspect, the vampire simply didn't manage to frighten Nicole with her little games. She realised that that was because she herself was considered a master in the arts of mental abuse. Lost in anger, sudden guilt and a few other stray thoughts that aren't really worth mentioning the new cut came as a surprise. Sort of.

"Writing another letter?" Nicole asked sweetly, ignoring the blood slowly making its way into her left eye.

"No, I was thinking I might do some poetry."

"Well, you've certainly got a high enough ego to think that you may actually be able to write something halfway decent."

"It's always better than you, right? I mean, let's face it, your only achievement is… what was the phrase… being popular? And here I was thinking that someone popular is someone people liked." Patricia shook her head smiling. "The times are changing." She said with a dramatic sigh. "There was a time when we were feared, you know. But now, the biggest threat to humanity is humanity itself. Ironic, isn't it?"

"Very." Nicole agreed. "It must be really disappointing to know that we can exterminate everything with the push of a button, while you have to go with one victim at a time."

"Not really. I mean, where's the art in pushing a button?"

"Killing is an art?" Nicole asked laughing.

"Of course it is. Yes you can simply rip a person's head off, but what's the beauty in that?"

"You're all show, you know that?"

"Of course I know that. But it's still better than all talk like you." Patricia sat down next to Nicole on a chair that was undoubtedly more comfortable. "Now, where was I? Ah yes, writing." The vampire took a pen and a piece of paper out of her pocket. "Oh look, during our little conversation your blood had already stopped running. Your blood congeals much too fast, I would worry if I were you." She shrugged. "Well then, I guess I'll just have to make another cut."

Blood trickled down Nicole's cheek when something started beeping. Patricia looked around confused for a moment, then reached down one of her pockets to take out a small beeper.

"I'm afraid I've fallen a bit behind on the technological level." She admitted. "I was too busy searching to keep up." She stood up. "Well, I must go. It seems we've got some visitors and while I hate to send people home empty-handed and blood-filled I fear I'll have to do just that. Excuse me for a moment, will you?"

Sam pushed open the doors to the theatre. She had half expected them to be locked until she realised that vampires probably weren't very scared of any unwanted visitors. She noticed that Lily was still standing out on the street, suddenly looking very uncertain.

"You coming?"

"Yeah… Just gimme a sec, alright?"

"Nervous?"

"The thing in there half-controlled my mind just a few hours ago so, yeah I'm nervous."

"Don't worry. You're not gonna fight."

"Yes I am." Lily suddenly seemed to have regained her confidence and strode inside.

"No, I'm serious." Sam said as she put a shoulder on the other girl's shoulder. "You're gonna look for Nicole. And if you see that vamp you're gonna turn and run."

Lily opened her mouth to object, but thought better of it. "Fine."

"Good, let's go."

"One more thing."

"Shoot."

"When you said that that vampire has 'Nicole', did you mean Nicole Julian?"

"You know any other Nicole?"

Lily briefly shook her head. "Poor vampire."

Sam ignored the sudden streak of pain shooting through her body upon hearing this.

The main auditorium was designed in the ancient style of the amphitheatre. The stage at the other end of the entrance doors and the chairs were on an increasingly higher level. Lily had already went backstage in search of Nicole. Sam lingered a bit in the back rows, any vamp that took residence in a theatre was likely to 'welcome' any visitors here in the auditorium.

Sam was right.

A spotlight shot to life in the centre of the stage and Sam's eye detected movement from one of the higher balconies. The vampire had managed to jump precisely under the spotlight and, while Sam silently admitted that this was quite a feat, she couldn't help but find it very overdone. The vampire rose slowly. So slowly in fact that Sam couldn't help but think at a line from 'Austin Powers'.

"Start the unnecessarily slow sinking process." She said softly to herself, a smirk firmly on her face.

The vampire turned out to be quite tall and equipped with flaming red hair that was obviously dyed. Her costume was a tight black dress and once again Sam found all this to be so very cliché that it was simply amusing. She expected the vampire to turn around and speak some quasi-dramatic line any time now.

Slowly the vampire turned around and smiled at Sam.

"Hello dear, hadn't expected you _this_ soon."

Part Twelve

NOTE: And there you have it, the final part of the Bitch and the Beast. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who gave me feedback. I _really_ couldn't have done it without you. Thank you. And now without further ado, on with the story:

"You know, this really upsets my entire timetable." Patricia said."Really?" Sam wasn't exactly in the mood to talk, but if she could keep this vamp talking long enough Lily might find Nicole and get out of here unnoticed.

"Yes, you see I wasn't planning on leading you here until I had turned the girl."

"Well in that case you shouldn't have sent one of my friends to my house." Sam responded as she slowly started to make her way towards the stage.

"That girl was one of your friends?" The vampire seemed honestly surprised. "My, it's a small world after all. But enough talk, would you mind coming over here on stage?"

"Strange, but I was already planning to do that."

"Oh, wait, let me guess, 'you're planning to kill me', is that it?"

"That's more or less the gist of it. Although simply killing you seems nice compared to what I have in mind for you."

The vampire laughed. "You know, contrary to what your literature and other forms of 'culture' might tell you, you humans are really no match for us."

"Well then, good thing I'm not human, right?"

Patricia looked confused, her well-practised smile disappearing from her face. "What?"

Smiling, Sam revealed the bite marks on her right shoulder. The vampire's eyes seemed to lose their amused glimmer and she clenched her fists. "Werewolf." She hissed. "One of _my_ blood a werewolf."

"What do you mean, 'one of your blood'?"

"Don't you get it? I was once human too you know, I had a loving husband, children and all that. Until the day I changed, of course. Unfortunately for me my darling husband took _my_ children and fled. It has taken me centuries to track my descendants down."

"And now I turn out to be a werewolf, must be really disappointing." Sam said.

"Well no matter," Her theatric expressions firmly back in place again. "You're not the only one, you know. I'll just track down another one. After all, as opposed to you I have all eternity."

"I wouldn't count on it." Sam said, ending the conversation.

In seconds Sam shifted and dashed towards the vampire. Patricia remained on her spot, her smile remaining completely the same. Sam leapt onto the stage and with one quick jump knocked the vampire to the ground. The vampire softly blew into Sam's face. The werewolf was lifted from the ground by a sudden gust of wind and knocked against the far wall.

"Magic." Sam muttered as she crawled back to her four feet again. "I hate magic."

"Ah yes, I forgot. You werewolves only know brute force. You truly don't appreciate the elegance of magic, do you?"

Sam didn't respond, but instead dashed towards the stage again in a second attack. Somewhere she knew that was probably futile, but she gambled that it would amuse the vampire, giving her time to think of something else.

No such luck.

A wall of fire emerged in front of the stage, effectively cutting Sam off. The fire soon spread across the walls. There was no more way out. Her only chance was that the vampire's magic might disappear if she died. Too bad Sam couldn't reach her. The werewolf paced up and down, never taking her eyes off from the vampire who stood smiling at the other side of the firewall. There had to be a way to solve this. Why wasn't the vampire doing anything? Sam realised uncomfortably that this vampire only had to lift a finger to set her fur aflame. But she suspected that that would be too easy for a vampire like this. Sam growled deep in her throat and turned around.

Only to see a large grey demon coming in her direction. The body seemed human enough, except for the claws. The head looked like a human skull with goat's horn attached to them. The thing had no eyes, but it was possible that the two gaping black holes _were_ it's eyes. The most striking feature of the thing, however was its man-sized scimitar. Since Sam had no intention of being decapitated any time soon she jumped out of the demons way. She could faintly hear the clapping sound coming from Patricia's hands. Sam tried to create as large a distance between herself and the thing. The demon was powerful, that much was certain. But it was also slow and a little clumsy at times, but that was because he was too large to be able to walk easily through the rows of chairs. It soon found a way to get rid of that nuisance and its scimitar started hacking in on the chairs. Sam had waited for the demon to be distracted by something like this. She leapt forward and hit the demon in the chest. The demon stumbled backward a few paces before tumbling down. Sam jumped onto its chest and sunk her teeth into the thing's throat, only to find that she couldn't pierce the skin. The demon had recovered enough from the fall by now to grab Sam by the neck and hurl her a few feet away.

"I'm sorry dear, did I forget to tell you that Gemma cannot be harmed by conventional means? He is created by magic after all."

At that moment in time Sam decided that she _definitely_ didn't like magic. The demon started making his way towards Sam again swinging his huge scimitar to get rid of all those pesky seats that were in the way. The most realistic part of Sam's brain told her that she was not going to win this. Sam ignored it, of course. Maybe she could knock that scimitar out of its claws and then use it on the demon. The scimitar was created by magic as well after all. When Gemma came within range Sam leapt at it again. The demon had foreseen this however and used Sam's momentum against her, effectively tossing her against the wall of fire. Sam howled as the flames started to spread across her fur and she could clearly hear Patricia's almost hysterical laughter. Sam rolled across the ground to extinguish the flames. Even magical fire needs oxygen after all. She was about to get back on her feet when she could feel the weight of a really heavy foot slamming onto her back and pinning her to the ground. Sam managed to roll around enough to see Gemma raising its scimitar in preparation.

"Game over," Sam's brain told her. "You lose."

Sam could hear the blade rushing down, but it never hit its target. Gemma stood frozen, slowly vanishing. Sam quickly got back up on her feet, thinking that this was just another trick of Patricia. That she wanted to get a little more fun out of the werewolf. But when Sam looked up at the stage she could only see that the firewall was gone and that Patricia was staring disbelieving at the wooden point sticking out of the front of her chest. The vampire sighed once, then fell to the ground. Patricia would probably be horribly embarrassed by such an amateuristic death-scene if it weren't for the fact that it was _her_ death-scene. With a smug look on her face Nicole planted her foot on the back of the vampire and yanked her stake out of the vampire's back.

"Guess my backstabbing skills pay off after all." She muttered, before she too fell to the ground.

Sam quickly shifted as she ran towards the stage. She sat down next to the fallen blonde and put her hand under her head for a support. Nicole's face was filled with cuts and bloodstains of all sizes and only a miracle could prevent her from ending up with a face full of scars.

"Hey." Sam whispered softly.

"Hey yourself." Nicole whispered back. "How are you?"

"Fine. And how about you?"

"Couldn't be better."

"You look great."

"Liar. That bitch decided to be creative with a knife and my face."

"Really? I hadn't noticed."

"Nicole? Nicole! Where did you…" Lily's voice was quickly silenced when she appeared from the side-scenes and onto the stage. She couldn't believe what she saw. Sam was holding Nicole in a very tender embrace and they stared at each other with what she could only describe as 'lovingly'. The fact that there was a dead vampire corpse lying almost next to them suddenly seemed to be a very common sight compared to this. The two girls seemed to be completely oblivious to everything around them except each other. Deciding that this moment was too intimate and too bizarre to disturb she walked over to the vampire. Now that her unlife was gone she really didn't look that impressive. Lily noticed a deck of odd-looking cards half-sticking out of a pouch. Since she really had nothing better to do she picked them up. They looked vaguely like tarot-cards, but not like any tarot-deck _she_ had ever seen.

"What do you have there?" She could hear the voice of Sam ask. Lily turned around to see the girls back on their feet. Nicole leaned heavily on Sam, but Lily wasn't completely sure whether that was out of necessity or not.

"I'm not sure." Lily said. "Do you have any ideas?" She asked as she showed the cards to Sam.

"Magic." Sam growled. "Those things are magical."

"Any idea how they work?" Lily asked.

Sam seemed heavily offended by this notion. "Of course not. I don't do magic."

Ignoring the undertone of Sam's voice that told her that she shouldn't do magic as well Lily started looking through the cards. There were two cards that caught her interest, but she didn't know why. It was like her subconscious was telling her to do something with them, but the problem was that only the subconscious van hear orders from the subconscious. So Lily basically had no idea why she was studying these two cards so intently. One of them was blue with a simple depiction of a hand and the word 'Summon' at the bottom. The other was pink and contained the portrayal of an angel and the word 'Heal' at the bottom. Lily had no idea _how_ she was doing it, but she could feel… something… flowing through her and into the cards. The two cards lit up for a moment and in a bright white light the angel from the pink card took form. She was simply breathtakingly beautiful, her two large wings seemed to be made out of the whitest feathers known to man and she had a large spiralling tattoo all over her body. She looked curiously at Lily with her two golden eyes, waiting for the girl to speak.

"Um… hi." Lily offered weakly. How does one talk with an angel, she wondered. "I'm Lily."

"My name is Kyra." The angel said. "Why have you summoned me?"

"Why have I what?" Lily asked confused. "Oh, the cards, right, well…"Even though the summoned Kyra was only a reflection of the original, she was capable of some independent thought. The girl standing there rather helplessly was obviously inexperienced. The angel smiled benignly.

"Are you wounded?" She asked.

"Me? No." Lily responded. "But Nicole is." She quickly added, pointing at the blonde.

Kyra turned around and saw that the girl was indeed wounded. But her wounds were only superficial cuts. This was not going to be difficult. Kyra started glowing brightly again and soon the whole auditorium was filled with a blinding light. When the light faded again Kyra was gone.

But so were Nicole's wounds.

Sam eyes went wide with joy. Lily's eyes went wide in amazement. Nicole had no idea why everybody's eyes were bugging out like that and assumed it had something to do with her. But before she could ask about it the doors at the far side of the room swung open and fifteen men and women stepped inside. David looked around calmly, noticing his protege, the girl she spent much time with, another girl he didn't know and most importantly the dead body of a vampire lying on the ground.

"It seems the cavalry has come too late." David said. "I hope nothing bad has happened?"

"Of course not." Sam responded calmly. "But I must admit that all the credit goes to the human."

"Really?" David said. "Most remarkable. Well, I suppose we'll have to clean up here a bit. You girls should go home."

Nicole and Sam took their time before leaving the theatre. When they hit the streets they would have to let go and they weren't up for that yet.

"Hey Nic, how did you get that stake?" Sam asked, more to stall than out of any real interest.

"I'm not stupid Sam. I never leave home without one, well, not since the night everything started." Nicole looked back to see Lily slowly trailing after them. She was looking through the cards, trying to figure out what did what and how to use them, since she still had really no idea. "How about her? What'll happen?"

"Lily? I don't know. According to the stories people like her revert to normal once the main vamp is killed, but I happen to know that most stories aren't very true. She might stay half-vampire forever."

"Well, the main vamp is dead, so we'll just have to wait and see. By the way, are you going to eat Patricia or what?"

"That's disgusting, Nic."

"What? You eat raw meat."

"Yeah, but not _undead_ meat. The thought just makes my stomach turn." Sam trembled to accentuate her point.

Then came the moment Nicole and Sam had dreaded for the past minute or so. They had reached the doors to the outside.

"I need to go home." Sam said sadly. "Mom's gonna ground me for life." She muttered.

"See you tonight?"

"I'd be offended if you wouldn't."

Nicole smiled. "Just the answer I wanted to hear."

The girls looked at each other for a moment, both hating the fact that they were going to be separated so soon again. They moved forward to one another and softly pressed their lips together. Lily absentmindedly avoided them. She was already reaching for the door when her brains registered what her eyes just saw. She stared disbelieving at the couple, her suspicions confirmed. Lily closed her eyes and shook her head. This just had to be some bizarre daydream. But when she opened her eyes they were still there. They weren't kissing any more, but their arms were still wrapped around each and once again loving gazes were exchanged. With the very disturbing image of Sam and Nicole together stuck in her mind Lily walked out of the building. She didn't even notice the blinding glare of the setting sun.

Sam and Nicole hadn't noticed Lily's odd behaviour those few moments before she left the building. They were focused entirely on that one most important thing in the world.

Each other.

Epilogue

***From the Diary of Nicole Julian***

We took Lily to Clive's bar last night. His face was simply hilarious when he thought that Sam had dragged 'yet another human' into his bar. Still, it was not as priceless as the look on Lily's face when her glass of B negative was set in front of her. Drinking blood probably goes against all her principles, but that didn't prevent her from remarking that 'A neg' was definitely better than 'O pos'.

But I'm avoiding the real issue.

Schooldays are getting increasingly harder for me. I need to be close to her so badly it almost hurts, but I can't. I can't be seen with her. My whole life, well, school-life has been one long trek up the social scale. And I can't give that up, simply because I know nothing else. To make matters even worse some cruel masochistic part of me always manages to seat me so that I can look in her direction without anyone really noticing it. I don't know what's worse, seeing her and not being able to be close to her or not seeing her at all. Sometimes I just want to run over to her, kiss her and show the world that she's mine.

Sometimes we meet in the Novak when we're sure that there's no-one there. At those moments we're simply… together, I don't really think there's another word to describe it.

God, do I sound pathetic or what?

But, there's still the night of course. She's not grounded any more, but she doesn't go out to hunt. Instead we walk, we talk and any unpleasant things nearby are thoroughly ignored. But I know she misses hunting. She doesn't say it out loud of course, but I think I know her well enough.

So I let her bite me today.

I didn't do it because I want to be a werewolf. Well, that wasn't the _main_ reason anyway. I did it because of her. So that _we_ can go hunting. She had warned me against it numerous times when I finally told her my decision. She told me that my first change, or 'shift' as she calls it, is going to be extremely painful. After all, I've never been a wolf before so my bones, muscles and organs are going to move, lengthen, shorten, maybe even disappear for a while. Tonight's a full moon. For some reason the first shift always happens at full moon.

Guess some of the stories are true after all.

The bite mark still stings a little. It's strange, biting someone isn't exactly considered an act of love, but this was. I don't know, maybe I'm seeing things, but when her teeth sank into my shoulder I felt connected to her more than I ever was.

Yeah, I definitely sound pathetic.

But I really don't care.

Because she loves me and I love her.

And in the end, isn't that all that matters?

The End