Spookycorp
Kara’s heart was racing as she stepped out of the elevator. She *knew* something was wrong when Lena sent her a single, clipped text message:
Come now. Need to talk.
The elevator opened directly into Lena’s penthouse, into her elegant, minimalist foyer. The room was dark, as was the rest of the penthouse, except for the light of a single candle. Lena sat on the expansive sofa in her living room, a box resting on her lap. Kara didn’t need to use her x-ray vision to know that it was lined with lead. Her heart sank.
“Come in,” said Lena.
Kara walked inside, waiting at a respectful distance. Lena was beautiful in candlelight, her hair so dark it dark it could drink midnight under the table, eyes sparing like chips of emerald and sapphire, chipped with gold. The light caressed her sharp jawline and made her expression severe and smoldering at the same time.
Kara had fantasies like this. Most of them involved more candlelight and more pale skin.
“I know what you are,” said Lena.
Kara’s heart skipped. She fumbled with her hands.
“You can drop the aw shucks, I’m a farm girl from Vaguely Canada routine, Supergirl.”
Kara’s heart dropped through her stomach.
“I can explain,” she began. “If you give me a chance. Lena, please, I’m your best friend.”
Lena’s eyes hardened. Very softly she said, “am I?”
“How did you find out?”
Lena reached over to her side table, swirled a glass of wine, and took a sip.
“Lex told me. After I killed him. For you.”
Kara swallowed, and took a step forward. “Oh my God. Lena, what happened? What did he do?”
“Stop,” said Lena. “No closer.”
Kara stopped, her chest tightening, tears starting to well in her eyes.
Lena looked down, then up.
“He was going to kill you, and I couldn’t let that happen, because I thought I was in love with you. Before I knew what you are.”
The words hit Kara harder than anything she’d felt before, punching through her heart like the Kryptonite stake that was probably resting in that box. No, it wasn’t possible. She’s been so careful, Kal has been so careful.
“Lex had proof, but I didn’t trust it. I had to find corroboration. That’s why I talked you into taking me to the Fortress, so I could download the records I needed and examine them.”
Kara swallowed. “I would have given you what you wanted if you’d asked.”
“No, you wouldn’t, because you cover your tracks. You tell everyone that your powers come from the sun, but you’re lying.”
Kara wrung her hands, looking out at the moon. It hung full, heavy and huge in the National City sky.
“Not exactly. We have our powers here because Sol affects us differently. It doesn’t…”
“It doesn’t destroy Kryptonian vampires like you and your cousin,” Lena finished. “It doesn’t weaken your powers in sunlight or burn your skin, so you have nothing to fear here but Kryptonite.”
Kara licked her lips, feeling her fangs aching in her gums as they often did when Lena Luthor was in the room.
“Have you ever fed on me? I know about the other powers, Kara. The ones you and your cousin haven’t told everyone one about. Like modifying memories.”
Kara started. “What? No. I don’t feed directly on humans. When I was younger, my human family took turns giving me a unit of whole blood a month. That’s all I need. We don’t need as much on Earth. I’ve never bitten anyone on Earth. Kal-El trained me not to when I arrived here. Lena, I promise, I’m not some kind of predator.”
Kara edged closer, and Lena put her hand on the box. Kara froze.
“Liar.”
“Lena, please.”
“Your cousin has been feeding on Lois Lane for years. Lex had proof. Very thorough proof. He’s not as slick as he thinks, your Clark.”
Kara looked down.
“It was her choice. It’s tradition for my people. When one of us falls in love, we…”
“What, start seeing your ‘lover’ as a glorified bag of cheeze-its?”
Kara shifted on her feet. “No, we turn them. Clark is going to turn her after they marry. She’ll be like us.”
Lena’s gaze bored into her.
“I had to know, and now I do.”
“Lena, I would never hurt you, or feed on you against your will. I never feed on anyone against their will.”
“You’re lying.”
“Lena.”
“Lex had proof of that, too,” said Lena. “You do feed. On criminals, on people you think won’t be missed, and on James.”
“James was willing,” said Kara. “The others… it hurts, Lena. Clark’s path is hard. Too hard. I’m not perfect. You can’t imagine what the thirst is like. It’s like a hot railroad spike in my gut. I need it.”
“I thought about this for a long time,” said Lena. “I had to look you in the eye and hear it from you. I didn’t know what to do. You feed on people’s blood, but the city… the world needs Supergirl. So what do I do?”
“You don’t have to do anything,” said Kara. “I can just go, or… I don’t want to go, Lena. I know you’re upset, I know you’re mad, but you asked me here for a reason. I know you want to give me a chance. What we have, our friendship, it’s bigger than this. It can survive this. I want it to.”
Lena sighed. “Kara, I killed my brother for you, in cold blood.”
Kara swallowed. “I know. I know you loved him. I’m so sorry. I wish I could have helped you somehow. Maybe if I’d told you my identity earlier, we could have saved him.”
Lena opened the box.
Kara jolted back, expecting sickly pustulant light to sear the flesh from her bones, but there was no Kryptonite in the box.
Instead there was a pair of silvery bracelets, resting on black velvet.
“I had to make sure you couldn’t see inside,” said Lena. “No peeking.”
Kara swallowed, hard. “Those are binding bracelets. Do you know what those are for?”
Lena nodded slowly.
“You can come closer now. Sit.”
Kara stepped around the coffee table and sat primly near Lena, at a respectful distance, hands folded in her lap.
Lena leaned back against the arm rest and pulled her inky black hair back from her neck, tilting her chin back. Offering.
Kara could smell her, the scent exploding in her nostrils. She could feel Lena’s pulse and her own began to throb in time with it, the aching in her gums exceeded by the pleasant ache between her legs.
“What are you doing?” Kara murmured.
“Offering.”
“Why?”
Lena reached out and caressed her bare foot along Kara’s calf. Kara couldn’t help it. Her fangs popped out against her will for the first time in ages.
“Does it feel good for Lois? When he feeds on her?”
“So I’m told. Our fangs secret a mild neurotoxin that has some pleasant effects.”
“How long have you been thinking about tasting me?”
Kara shuddered. “It’s not like that. You’re my best friend.”
Lena rolled her eyes. “You know, I used to think you were just oblivious, or very, very closeted. Now I get it.”
“Lena,” Kara said, more urgently.
Lena’s foot slid higher up Kara’s leg. “It must be hard holding back all that hunger. Surrounded by food you can never taste. Is that why you’re always stuffing yourself with potstickers? You’d rather be eating me?”
Kara swallowed, hard.
“Maybe. Yes.”
“I’m right here.”
“I won’t. Not unless you say it, Lena. Not unless you offer it. Explicitly.”
“Kara, do it. Take me.”
Kara lunged across the sofa, pulling Lena to her so she lay flat on the cushions, and drove her fangs into Lena’s throat as she ground her thigh between Lena’s legs. She knew what Lena planned and she didn’t care.
Lena yelped in pain from the puncture wounds, but her cry quickly melted into a pleasurable moan as she writhed beneath Kara, driving her nails into Kara’s back.
Kara drank slowly, gently, taking only a trickle and feeling Lena’s pulse in her throat. She’d wanted this for so long, she started to weep from the sheer release of it, tears streaming down her cheeks. Lena’s blood sang with magic, the taste of her more intense than the most exotic spices, more flavorful than the sweetest wine. It was better than sex, although now that she had Lena’s blood on her tongue, she was hoping that was on the menu, too.
She heard the click and felt the cold metal close around her wrist and sighed.
“So that’s your solution,” Kara whispered.
“Lex couldn’t make it work,” said Lena. “I always loved how much it pissed him off that his bastard sister has magic and he doesn’t.”
Lena closed the other bonding bracelet around her own wrist, and Kara instantly felt the weight of the connection, the power in it, and knew she was helpless. She didn’t care.
“Kneel,” said Lena.
Kara slid off of Lena and onto her knees, head bowed.
“There,” said Lena. “Now I know. I know the world gets to keep Supergirl and I know you’re not a threat.”
“I knew what you were going to do,” said Kara. “I let you. If this is what you need to trust me, I’m okay with it.”
Lena took Kara’s chin in her fingers and tilted her head up, leaning forward to meet her gaze.
“I could do whatever I want with you now. With a Kryptonian vampire under my control, I could rule the world.”
“You could,” Kara whispered. “You can make me do it whatever you please. You never needed magic for that. I would do it willingly.”
“I know,” said Lena, “but this is going to be a lot of fun.”
“I was a little worried you’d tell me never to see you again,” said Kara. “Or you’d demand I turn you.”
Lena laughed. “Darling, do you have any idea how much power I’d have to give up to become a vampire?”
Lena ran a hand down Kara’s arm, squeezing her bicep.
“Now, carry me to the bedroom and let’s see what you can do.”
Kara didn’t need to be ordered to do that.