MY SUGAR MUMMY IS A BEAUTIFUL VAMPIRE

Blake leaned down, bringing his chiseled features mere inches from Nana's own. She could feel the scorching gust of his exhalations fanning across her skin, smell the metallic reek of the bloody tears trickling from his eyes to stain the sheets beneath her trembling body.

"Now," he murmured in a tone of sinister calm that opposed his feral appearance. "You're going to tell me everything. Where did Reggie and his brothers say they were going? What were their plans?"

Blake had done so much as stay far enough to see them unfortunately, he was out of hearing g range. It turned out even now he had discovered one of his upper limits.

Nana could only whimper again in mindless terror, shaking her head frantically in mute denial of his demands. Blake's eyes flared in response, his massive hand whipping out to grip her jaw in a vise. His claws pricked her skin, prompting a terrified squeak as she felt a bead of blood well up to trickle down her throat.

"I beg to you try and defy me," he hissed, his beautiful features drawn into a mask of sadistic promise. "Enlighten me now, or I'll strip the information from your addled mind piece by agonizing piece!!"

This was a mad man!

No...he was no man! He was a complete and utter demon staring right at her at the moment. Blake had lost it, consumed with rage and hate. Whatever Reggie did thinking he was doing this demon a favour clearly pissed him off. Now Nana was beginning to see Reggie's fears come to light.

Tears streamed down Nana's cheeks as she thrashed weakly in his grasp. She knew with every fiber of her being that he wasn't bluffing - At this point, Blake would torture her without a shred of remorse to get what he wanted. But something was unclear, if he wanted, he could simply coerce her into spilling out the information without a single fight coming from her.

She could still remember vividly how she felt when he commanded her to go to sleep at the other safe house.

That strange feeling wasn't present anymore. Could it be he couldn't do it on command and that time it just happened randomly? If so, what other things could Blake do accidentally?

It became clear stalling a mad man on a mission was a gamble she wasn't going to take. So with a ragged sob of resignation, she began babbling out everything she knew about Reggie's plans, horrified words tumbling over themselves in her desperation to avoid further torment.

When at last she finished, Nana sagged in Blake's hold, feeling utterly shamed at her cowardice even as relief washed through her that the worst was over...hopefully. Blake studied her for an endless moment as if weighing the truth of her words.

Then, to her shock, his expression abruptly smoothed out and he slowly released his crushing grip with a nod. Nana gasped, flinching away as he reached down once more--only to feel the gentle thump of his palm against her shoulder in an almost affectionate pat.

"There, there now," he murmured, the bone-deep menace leaching from his tone. "You've been very helpful, Nana. Best get some more rest, you've earned it."

With that, Blake straightened and turned on his heel, striding from the room without a backwards glance. Nana remained frozen, chest heaving with residual terror, as his footfalls faded into silence.

Only once she was certain he was gone did she bury her face in her hands and finally allow the sobs of shame and despair to overwhelm her.

Outside, Blake inhaled a deep draught of the night air, separating and cataloging the myriad scents laced within the currents. His vampiric senses instantly honed in on the lingering trail left by Reggie, Gunther and Randall.

A cruel smile played across Blake's lips as he set off in pursuit, moving with predatory grace and purpose. They could run, but they couldn't hide - not from him, not ever again.

He stared after the fresh tracks, the scent signatures left in their wake...then slowly lifted his face and drew a deep draught of the night air. His lips parted in a cruel smirk as he caught the tang of their combined essences sharp on the breeze, realizing their oversight.

The traitors hadn't gone to any great lengths to mask their tracks from his predator's senses. A dark chuckle rumbled up from the depths of Blake's chest as he set off in a loping stride, allowing his heightened instincts to guide his pursuit.

He ran in eerie silence, his powerful form constantly phasing in and out of full visibility like a malignant specter haunting the night. As the miles fell away beneath his pounding strides, flashes of memory, revelation and hard-won knowledge flickered through Blake's mind.

Images of Elena breaking into Rose's home months ago surfaced - her inexplicable ability to shroud her presence so thoroughly that not even their kind's most finely-tuned senses could perceive her aura or scent...

One of his first confounding experience being able to detect the vampire's existence, followed by the bone-chilling revelation that Elena had masked herself from them in a way that should have been impossible...

Blurred recollections of his solitary self-teachings some days earlier consumed by desperation to unravel Elena's techniques so he too could conceal himself in her maddening, impenetrable veil...

Until finally, finally he'd mastered the ability to bend light, scent and senses around his own form with an immaculate shield - one potent enough to veil him even from the awareness of other vampires at their most heightened states of focus.

A broad, self-satisfied grin split Blake's features as he sailed over a crumbling ridgeline, his senses locked on the dim glow of taillights in the distance. With this formidable power at his command, that arrogant Reggie didn't stand a chance of shaking his pursuit.

Blake would hound the traitors' steps to the ends of the earth itself if need be. For he would have his answers, and by all that was sacred and damned, he would have his Rose back as well.