Soph woke in darkness, momentarily disoriented. She was in her own bed, the sheets tangled around her legs and the blinds filtering slats of light across the room. She was alone there, though Eli had initially come to bed with her. Had he left some time in the night?

Her recollections of the night before were patchy. The moments at the beginning of her night - her date with Marco and the gathering of the witches - and the moments at the very end where she'd fucked Eli again, were crystal clear in her memory. The in-between, when she'd been under the predatory effects of the vampire blood, was a haze, as if she'd sunk six bottles of wine and blacked out.

Speaking of the vampire blood... Soph swung her legs over the edge of the bed and sat up. The effects of the blood lingered; the room was brighter than it should be, and she could still feel some strength in her limbs that meant she could move faster than usual if she wanted to. But it was waning and she could feel a headache creeping in at the corners of her mind.

She moved on soft feet to the bedroom door and surveyed the wreckage of the lounge room. The glass of the coffee table top had been cleaned up, but the base still lay overturned and the TV with its cracked screen was tilted back against the wall.

Soph passed it all to where her clothes had been slung over the back of the lounge. She picked up the shirt first, ripped completely in half by Eli. It was the second item of clothing he'd ruined in a week. She should send him a bill.

Letting the shirt fall to the ground, she picked up the jeans instead, rifling through their pockets until she found her phone. She swore. The screen was cracked. She'd only just replaced it after the near miss with the truck.

It still worked though, and she was dismayed when the date showed up as Saturday night. She'd slept the entire day away.

Ignoring the wreckage of her lounge room, she took her phone and went back to bed to curl up under the blankets. Guilt, shame and confusion crashed over her in alternating waves. She tried not to settle on any memory for too long. Sierra and Adriana had totally betrayed her. What sort of sadist drugged witches with vampire blood? And then she'd been set on Eli. Had they picked her because they knew she was familiar with him? Of course she'd joined the coven before her acquaintance with him had been made public, but maybe they'd been watching her.

Thinking about Eli set her mind racing in every direction. He was keeping secrets. She knew that, but she hadn't understood the extent of the danger he was in. She wanted an explanation, to know why she'd been forced to hunt him through the forest the night before, but based on his guarded reaction to her initial probing, it was unlikely he'd be truthful with her. Was that why he'd left before she'd woken? So she wouldn't be able to ask more questions?

She wished he'd stayed. Not just to answer her questions but to just be there with her. She yearned for his presence. Was it his Possessive compulsion making her feel that way? Maybe.

Her thoughts shifted suddenly to Marco. Another date with him ending with a different man in her bed. It was probably time to call it; she liked Marco and he was Nona-approved, but she couldn't keep doing this to him. That was something to work out later, though. Right now she had bigger things to worry about.

She lifted her phone, opened Google and typed; What is a black witch? Though she hadn't particularly cared what Eli had said about her being a black witch with his compulsion drawing her to other things the previous night, now she needed to know.

The first few searches resulted in Halloween costumes and fantasy art, but with a bit of scrolling, Soph found a wiccan forum with mentions of black witches in the meta tags. She opened the page and began reading through the posts.

Anyone notice the sick energy around Grimhollows lately?

Like sick energy or 'sick' energy?

Not the fully sick type, that's for sure. @Lordies01 I've felt it. Especially near the peak. Have felt it in the city, too. Black witches maybe?

Glad I'm not the only one @Boldwitchie. Black witches? Didn't know there were enough around these parts to create a disturbance with the Ethereal. More theories?

Not that you heard it from me, but some vamps have been sucked bone dry and on the verge of mummification. Talk about ironic.

Excuse my ignorance, but what do black witches have to do with vamp corpses?

@Ericisking check out Touch of Night. That should answer some Qs.

Soph tapped on the link and watched a basic website load. The information on the first page was fairly nondescript, referring not to black witches, but witches in general. If Soph had found this page without reading the prior forum, she would have probably dismissed it. Now she read on.

All witches accept the power of the Ethereal as the source of strength for their gifts, but not all witches are cut from the same stone.

In times of need, some witches have been known to draw on their own energy to create a ward or cast a protective spell. This comes easier to some witches, and they may consider trying a nip of vampire blood to confirm if they are indeed witches who can operate without the need of the Ethereal.

Soph stared at the phone screen until it went dark. The article didn't say what a black witch was exactly, but she remembered the notes she had read on vampires in her mother's spell book. It had said that witches who drink vampire blood could experience an increase in their natural abilities. Soph hadn't felt that. She'd actually taken on a vampire's abilities of strength and speed. What had Eli told her? "Turn the Predator off." Had she specifically taken on a Predator's powers?

She had a sudden moment of sick realisation as she thought about the two women who had chased Eli to her door all those weeks ago. She had assumed they were vampires, but had they actually been black witches? Had Soph looked like that?

She tossed her phone to her bedside table and pulled her pillow over her head. It was all too much to take in.

***

When she woke again it was light out, and her head was positively throbbing. No trace of her vampire strength remained, and she shielded her eyes with her hand as she fell from her bed and staggered to the kitchen.

Even after she'd popped two painkillers and guzzled three glasses of water, she was desperately thirsty. Neither seemed to help her headache as she moved to the lounge room and wrenched the blinds closed. She ignored the destruction of the room and flopped down on the lounge.

She'd intended to do a bit of Googling on the Founders to find out exactly what their powers were, but now that she was down again she couldn't move. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

She managed to doze on and off, but as night descended again, the tension in her skull only increased. Her skin was chilled and eventually she dragged herself from the lounge back to the bedroom. Shivering, she crawled back under the blankets and pulled them up to her chin. Her mouth was parched, but she couldn't force herself back up to get some water. Something told her it wouldn't help, anyway.

The night wore through and Soph's migraine didn't abate. Tears licked her cheeks as she clutched the blankets with shaking fingers. The blood pounding in her ears was all she could think about.

By morning she hadn't slept a wink and it took all her strength to reach for her phone to send a text to Bradley to say that she was sick. Then she opened Google and typed in: where can I buy vampire blood?

Her fingers had formed the words before she'd even realised, and when her brain caught up with her actions, she flung the phone across the room and away from herself.

"Fuck!" she hissed, pulling her pillow down to cover her head. Drinking vampire blood a few nights ago had turned her into a psycho bitch, why on earth would she try it again?

But deep down, she knew. She knew her headache, the chills and her muscle fatigue was being caused by blood withdrawals. A completely logical part of mind told her that she needed to work through it, that it would be dangerous to even think about trying to get vampire blood. But her pain center was telling her otherwise.

She warred with herself for some time before finally relinquishing and crawling out of bed to get her phone. She told herself that she would call Eli, to ask him for blood, or even to ask for help, but once she had collected her phone and had slumped against the wall with it, she remembered that she didn't have his number. She opened Google again and hit search on the text that was still there. Where can I find vampire blood?

With shaking fingers, she scrolled down the results. None of them made much sense to her fried brain, so she went back to the top and clicked on the first one. It was a directory of suppliers and their phone numbers. Soph didn't allow herself to think as she found a dealer near the city and sent him a text.

He didn't reply immediately so, chilled to the bone, she returned to her bed and curled beneath the covers. Sleep was impossible with the pounding of her own blood in her ears and the migraine that threatened to make her blind. She was sure she was going to die.

The entire day passed and dusk arrived before the supplier text back. Soph snatched up her phone as it vibrated and squinted at the too bright screen. He'd replied with an address on the cusp of the city and the western suburbs and a time. Seven p.m.

With a purpose that gave her strength, she once more got out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and a shirt. She didn't know if they were clean. She didn't care.

Leaving the building through the car park, she set off at a brisk walk towards the train station, timing her steps to the thump of her pulse. She felt marginally better now that the sun had gone down, and she knew her migraine would be short lived. She wished she'd brought a jacket, though. She was fucking cold.

The train took her out to Gryphook and she followed the directions on her phone to the address the supplier had given her. She'd never been out to Gryphook before, as it was generally a vampire only suburb.

She didn't stop to consider what she was getting herself into, though she noticed people - vampires - watching her as she passed. When she found the crossroad of the address sent to her, she approached a man who looked as if he was waiting. He leaned against a lamp post, arms crossed, and watched her come. His eyes were a dull red colour, as if his inner Predator was just beneath the surface. A slow smile curled the corners of his mouth and Soph almost lost her nerve. Her body's desperation to be rid of the pain pushed her on.

"Looking for a hit, Love?" he said as she stopped before him.

"I've got cash," she told him as she wrapped her arms over her middle. She told herself that it was because she was cold, and not because this guy made her edgy. At her words, he threw back his head and laughed.

"New to this are you?" he said. "Cash isn't the currency for vampire blood."

Sex was the currency for a hit, Soph thought numbly, remembering the afternoon she'd followed Eli and he'd lured her into that alleyway.

The vampire gestured towards an open doorway behind him. The paint was peeling from the frame and beyond that it was dark. "Do you want a hit or not?"

Soph almost said no. Almost. Even the thought of trudging back to her apartment empty handed made her skull throb.

"Can I go first?" she asked dejectedly. He shrugged nonchalantly, but she could see the triumphant glint in his eye; he knew she was suffering.

He led her towards the dark building and she followed, wishing she'd charged a few crystals before coming.

The room he took her into was gloomy and dusty. A crack of light filtered through a boarded-up window, and a stairway with a rotting rail led to a second floor. The only items in the room were a moth eaten Victorian couch, a stained bed mattress and a handful of empty beer bottles.

The vampire withdrew a pocket knife and pressed it across a vein on his throat. "Come on, then," he offered and Soph could see blood well from the cut he'd made and drip down his neck. Disgust burned a hole in her stomach, but she couldn't stop her body from moving forward. She placed her hands on his shoulders and her mouth over the cut.

His blood was hot and sweet. Immediately Soph felt the tension in her head and the chill beneath her skin subsiding. Strength returned to her limbs. Impossible strength.

"Ah, yeah. That's it," the vampire groaned, his hands finding her waist to pull her tight against him. She could feel his erection through his pants.

She continued to drink his blood and as her strength increased, she felt a terrible fury building within her. Unlike the last time she'd drunk vampire blood, in which her hatred and need to destroy was uncontrollable, this time she could feel the switch inside her - the one Eli had helped her find by almost choking her to death - that would turn the Predator off. She left it on for just a little longer.

She lifted her hands from his shoulders to cup his neck. The vampire seemed to take this as some sort of cue for he removed his hands from her waist and fumbled with his belt. Soph tightened her grip on him, pulled her mouth away from his neck and wrenched his head to the side.

His neck broke with an audible snap, and he slumped to the dirty floor. She stared down at him, breathing hard. She didn't know if he was really dead - she didn't think vampires could die by mortal means - and she couldn't leave without being sure.

Within a heartbeat she had flashed to the window, ripped down a board and returned to the immobile vampire lying on the floor. Snapped the board in half with just her hands and without hesitating, she plunged a shard of the wood into the vampire's heart. He let out a hiss of air and blood bubbled at his lips. Then he was still.

Soph finally hit the internal switch that turned the Predator off. She still retained her heightened senses and ability, but some semblance of her humanity returned.

A mix of emotions spiralling within her as she stared down at the corpse. She hated him for what he'd intended to do to her, but her own actions also sickened her. She'd just killed a man without even batting an eyelid.

Swallowing back bile, she looked around the room to ensure there were no other traces of her being there. Then she turned and fled.