Nova knew this was the end, she had lost to this five-hundred-year-old vampire queen and no one would be there to take up the fight after this. She had brazenly chased Livia tonight, without her hunting gear just because she thought, or better yet, she knew that she would be able to finally put a stake through this monsters heart once and for all.

Only now did Nova fully see the big picture, Livia had been toying with her the entire time. The hunter had only caught those glimpses of her because Livia allowed it to happen, to keep Nova headed in the right direction.

Once she had Livia, “Cornered,” the vampire only gave a sad little smile, as if she was sorry that it had to come to this. Before Nova could even draw the one weapon that she always had with her, an impact like a charging elephant smacked into her chest, knocking her back twenty feet.

As she stared in disbelief at the vampire that never even appeared to move from that spot, the sad smile turned up slightly at the left corner and she heard the vampires voice for the first time.

“I know you won’t believe this now, but I have the utmost respect for your abilities, intellect and of course your beauty,” Livia said in a soft, velvety smooth voice that could put the crankiest baby at ease, “I have been aware of your vampire mission since the beginning, I also have let you have free reign in ridding the country of my true enemies,” she explained.

“Most, but not all of your kills were from tips and leads given to your organization by me. You have basically been doing my dirty work for me since the beginning, helping to eliminate those who wanted nothing more than wanton destruction and mindless carnage. How could we ever keep a low profile with idiots like that roiling the waters?”

Nova could not tell if the voice was only in her head, her ears or both. The sound was both soothing and terrifying in its omnipresence. Could any of this be true, and what the fuck hit her in the chest like that.

“How did …” she tried to ask through clenched teeth, trying to suck air back into her lungs so that she could pick her ass up and finish this.

These vampires always had to monologue and that more than anything always did them in.

“That ..?” scoffed Livia, “That was nothing, one of my many attributes that you and your organization know nothing about. What you should be interested in is why you are still alive …”

“This was as good a time as any to shut this bitch up,” thought Nova.

As she drew her specially modified Desert Eagle from it thigh holster, ready to blow some holes through center mass, which would be impossible to miss at this range. She felt a very slight puff of air, almost like a lover whispering in her ear.

After that her hand held nothing and her gun, which had been responsible for more vampire deaths than she could remember was dangling easily from the finger of Livia’s hand.

“I see that you still carry this thing around with you where ever you go,” Livia sneered as she appraised the hand held killing machine, “It would not do for me to let you keep this in your possession as it might be able to actually do me some harm.”

Nova was actually speechless, never had she been disarmed in a fight. And never when the vampire in question was twenty feet away at the time. This made absolutely no sense to her, as she began to rise to her feet, they were instantly swept from beneath her and she was again caught wondering why she was on the ground.

“Please just stay where you are, I really don’t want to hurt you,” chided Livia, “I have been following you for quite some time, watching your exploits and sometimes even stepping in to keep you from certain death. I had to be sure that you were the one to join with us … with me in the evolution of our kind. You will never know fear, pain or aging again, you will only know the satisfaction of belonging.”

“Really, what the fuck??” Nova’s mind screamed, “How are you able to do that?” she managed to croak out.

Then her mind flashed back to what Livia had just said about, “Stepping in,” encounter after encounter whisked through her brain. Fights where she was sure her and her team were done for, but somehow miraculously survived. They all joked that they had a guardian angel, but Livia could not be that angel, could she? Could she?

And then her brain really jolted awake when she realized that Livia had said, “Join with us, with me.”

“Are you insane enough to think that I would ever join with the likes of you,” Nova snarled.

“To answer your first question, you will learn in due time,” she said patiently, “Now as for the second question, I know, I know, it seems far fetched right now, but in a hundred years, you will look back on this night and laugh at your silliness. Tonight, I will give you a choice between joining with me, or dying here and now,” she said with regal authority, “You have absolutely no chance of defeating me, and I can’t let you leave here, not alive anyway to go back to your people with any new information about me.”

“That’s easy then, I choose death, so bring it on and lets see who walks out of here,” Nova growled in defiance as her body prepared for the final fight.

“There was really no other choice for you to make if you wanted to see another day,” Livia said with a smirk. “If you had not chosen death, then I would have been wrong about the warriors heart that I knew you carried within you. By choosing death, you have only affirmed what I already knew and unwittingly accepted my offer.”

Before this could even begin to sink into Nova’s mind, she felt an iron grip around her hand, and another talon-ed claw pulling her head back, baring her neck in the process.

“No … ” she tried to scream.

But she had made the mistake of turning to look at her attacker, falling immediately under Livia’s spell as their eyes locked. At such close range the vampire queens power to mesmerize was unstoppable.

In her mind, she continued fighting, but the fight was only in her mind and even that small little rebellion seemed to be sinking further and further into the darkness. Her body had already given up any such futile resistance, and simply waited for the inevitable bite that would end her vampire hunters existence.

“I wonder if it will hurt,” was her last conscious thought.