Diana's laboratory

Diana finishes her story. Jessica is silent. "I know. That was a lot to absorb" Diana says kindly. Jessica is deep in thought. She doesn't quite know how she feels about Elizabeth and Diana's plan. But it is starting to make a certain sense to her.

"Should we finish this one off?" Diana asks, running a hand along the human's torso. Jessica is so thirsty. She nods. The vampiresses bite back into the girl's breasts. After a few minutes of feeding, the girl expires. Jessica withdraws her fangs and sits back, wiping the blood from her mouth. Diana smiles at her. Jessica is surprised at how little guilt she feels over the kill - it was actually quite pleasurable.

Diana leans over the body to kiss her again. This time, Jessica kisses back.

"Didn't it feel good, draining her?" Diana asks. Jessica finds herself nodding. "Good. There's nothing wrong with that. They are ours to enjoy". Jessica is conflicted, but enjoys the blood, the kill, too much. She knows she won't be able to resist much.

"Would you like to see my lab?" Diana asks, a coquettish grin on her face.

The vampiresses dress in jeans and t-shirts. Diana leads Jessica through the mansion, to a wing she hasn't seen before. They come to a door with a keypad, and Diana enters a code to open the door.

They step into a large room. Unlike the rest of the mansion, this room feels cold and sterile, with lots of stainless steel surfaces, computers, test tubes, etc. Diana hands Jessica a lab coat from the wall, and puts one on herself.

"This is where I do most of my research. Elizabeth and I hope that you would like to assist me" Diana says.

Jessica thinks for a second. Why not? "Alright" Jessica answers.

"Excellent" Diana says, smiling. Let me show you some of my work. Diana leads Jessica to a second room. Three naked women are suspended upright in machines along the wall. They breathe slowly, their eyes closed. Around their necks are wide steel collars. Through the collars there are two large needles, one jabbing into each side of their necks. Each needle is connected to a tube which disappears back inside the machine. The right tube is filled with a clear liquid. In the left tube: blood.

"These machines are my greatest invention so far. That tube on the right is slowly pumping a mix of medication, hormones and nutrients into these slaves. We keep them in an induced coma - there is no suffering! They just dream... I've also developed a mix of hormones and chemicals that stimulates their blood production into overdrive. Their blood is harvested by the left tube. I've found that by modifying the nutrient blend with certain additives we have a good deal of control over the human's flavor. A human can live for decades in one of these machines, generating thousands of gallons of fresh blood for us. Elizabeth dreams of millions of these machines. Sustainability is everything - just think of the vampire population we could support!" Diana says excitedly. I can't tell if she's so excited by the science or the cruelty Jessica reflects nervously.

Jessica is frightened but deeply curious. Well, they aren't directly suffering. We need their blood to live. Can I really judge? She thinks.

Diana fetches a glass from the table, and turns a spigot on the machine. Blood pours into the glass. She hands the glass to Jessica. "Tell me what you taste."

Jessica takes a sip of the blood. It's actually delicious. She downs the whole glass.

"It tastes like...oranges...and chocolate...." Jessica says, surprised.

"Yes! Exactly!" Diana says jubilantly. They're right, this is more humane than hunting Jessica thinks. She finds herself getting slightly aroused at the thought of scaling this production. So much blood.

Diana leads Jessica to another room. This room is filled with various prototypes of the iron maiden-like contraption that she had seen in Diana's room.

"I am still working on these, trying to make them more efficient. Faster, less blood wastage. When we make our move, it will be necessary to rapidly bring the human population to a more manageable level. No use in letting their blood go to waste when we do, though" Diana explains.

"What we are doing here really is for the greater good" Diana assures Jessica. "We will restore this planet to a more natural balance. A more natural order." Jessica is finding herself increasingly convinced, less resistant. Part of her laments that she isn't more disturbed, but she suppresses it.

The vampiresses continue walking through the lab, and Diana explains more of her work. "I've learned a great deal about our race over the last decade. I've isolated the pheromones that make us so persuasive, that allow us to enthrall the cattle. Mass synthesization is still a few years away, but is necessary for when Elizabeth makes her move. I've also been able to determine many of the compounds in our saliva that spur such incredible tissue repair and regeneration in the humans."

Diana continues: "the one thing I still don't understand is the mechanics of the transformation from human to vampire. There is a point, I guess, where science gives way to magic". Diana shrugs.

They enter another room. Inside, Jessica sees two human women in lab coats withdrawing blood from a bound woman on the examination table. They smell human...but not human Jessica thinks, confused.

"This is Ruth and Hallie. They are my first successful hybrids!" Diana says proudly. The women wave at Jessica and resume their work.

Jessica is confused. "Hybrids?" She asks.

"They are only part vampire" Diana explains, "I found that if you feed humans vampiric blood, stop their hearts at low temperatures, and then revive them about forty minutes later, the transformation is incomplete. Ruth and Hallie drink human blood, and will likely remain youthful and healthy for many many years. But they lack our fangs, our strength, our agility, our powers of persuasion. Crucially, though, they can freely walk in sunlight. We'll need a class of hybrids after the transition to vampiric rule, particularly during the day."

Jessica is finding it hard to ingest so much information, but is eager to learn more from Diana. Jessica is ready to bring the vampire revolution.