Victoria awoke in utter darkness and she felt the lingering after effects of her blood stirring her lifeless body to wakefulness. The smooth sensation of silk sheets caressed her bare skin as she lay atop the luxuriously soft mattress. In her arms and beneath her she felt familiar cold lifeless flesh.

Would tonight be the night? “Mistress?!” A soft happy, hope filled voice inquired, and after a short pause the silence was broken again, “Mistress? Are you up?” Only silence greeted Victoria and despair filled her heart. She rested her head gently on the corpse’s breast and her arms tightened around it like a child clinging to its mother. “Mistress, please wake up…I miss you so much,” she pleaded to the unresponsive form.

Minutes seemed like hours and after a few Victoria disentangled herself from the woman’s naked body. The soft silk felt good on her naked form as she reached for the bedside lamp. The sudden light was blinding and she blinked a few times before looking around the room. The boarded up and triple covered windows were just as she had always left them and everything else looked to be just as it should be. Good. She thought to herself.

She reached out in her mind, probing, and found the strange unresponsive consciousness of her sire in torpor. No matter how many times she felt it, it was still strange to feel her Mistress like that. The happy buzzing of the hive greeted her as their current caretaker and Queen’s daughter was now awake. Victoria found herself smiling at their greeting despite the sadness she felt.

She sat up and draped her feet over the side of the bed. Then she reached for her robe as she stood and put it on along with her slippers. She turned back toward the bed and looked with sadness at the pale, black-haired goddess that lay lifeless under the covers. “Well, Mistress it’s time for breakfast. We can’t have you slipping into the deep sleep. Especially since you’ve used so much vitae healing.” As if in response to Victoria’s statement there was movement from under a pile of blankets on the floor near the foot of the bed. Two beautiful lingerie clad women emerged with blank expressionless faces, one was blonde the other a red head. Victoria watched them get to their feet and walk over to the bedside.

Following the two female drones she stopped at the bedside and looked down at her sire. “Let me help you Lady Charlotte,” Victoria said as she gently touched her sire’s cheek and then opened her mouth. The blonde drone held out her right wrist and Victoria grabbed it. “Tonight we’ll have Jenny. Your favorite.” While speaking she straddled her sire’s form and pulled the drone’s wrist over her sire’s mouth. Victoria bent over and sunk her fangs into the woman’s wrist and warm blood filled her mouth, ran down her tongue, and slowly dripped into Charlotte’s mouth. Victoria had gotten quite good at feeding her sire this way since she started to care for her and not a drop was spilled or wasted. When her sire and her had enough Victoria licked the woman’s wounds closed and the two female drones when to go lay back down under the blankets. Victoria would see to the woman’s bodily functions and make sure they were fed later. After swallowing the remaining blood she leaned down and kissed the corpse beneath her on the cheek before climbing off. She arranged her sire’s limbs and brushed out her hair before leaving the bedside. Perhaps tomorrow night, She thought to herself hopefully.

Victoria made her way over to her cell phone and found a message waiting for her. It was the business manager of the orchestra that she had spoken to several times about performing for the next court. “Miss Stamford, this is Gerald Greene. I’m calling to inform you that the payment has been received and all the appropriate paperwork and arrangements have been made for the performance on the date and time you mentioned. The orchestra will arrive early, set up in the booth, and be available to play for the arrival of your guests and for the dance.”

Victoria closed her phone and nodded in satisfaction. “One less thing to worry about.” She paused for a moment and then continued, “Ok girls, lets you cleaned up and then I can get the boys clean,” she said as she turned to face the huddled forms on the floor. What would these poor dears do without me? She thought with affection toward the hive.