Eliza was having fun.  For the first time since she'd become a vampire, she was actually having fun.  Liala had become a project for her and she was exercising her abilities and discovering new ones in pursuing her latest endeavor, which was turning Liala's life around.  She'd read the journal and discovered that Liala was very bright but from an abusive background.  Due to poor economic background, she'd not been accepted by the better "cliques" in school and had been a loner.  She barely graduated high school and had gotten a job almost instantly in a department store as a sales lady.  She was a steady and reliable worker, and over the past two years had steadily advanced until she was a floor lead and could pick her own areas, along with handsome salary increases.  Her management had quickly realized that the departments she handled thrived and utilized her to the maximum.

Eliza knew more about her than any journal could ever describe.  She'd held her close, tasted her body, her blood and experienced her emotions.  Eliza knew her better than anyone, and Eliza wanted to help her.  She reminded Eliza of her younger self and Eliza identified with her and her problems.  She was going to make her life better - if she could only figure out how.

Daylight was making life difficult for Eliza.  It was too hot to completely cover her body and the days were rapidly lengthening and her outside time was getting very limited.  She'd been spending time with Cindy and Mark and was throughly torn between the two of them.  Cindy was sweet, compliant and gave herself to Eliza in and exciting surrender that inflamed her passions in a way that nothing ever had.  Mark was like a hot flame, and when they met, they burned and consumed each other.  She grinned.  Well, she consumed him more than he consumed her, but he still didn't know that.  With a little 'assistance' from her, he'd remained unaware of what she was.  He thought she was a little weird and a little too much into the goth thing, but he seemed to really like her and there was no doubt that he loved the sex with her.  Eliza doubted that he could be seeing anyone else.  She was keeping him drained in more ways than one.

Cindy and Liala had forced her to learn to exercise more control in her feeding habits.  Both of them were too willing, Cindy consciously and Liala unconsciously.  Mark just loved the sensations but Eliza suspected he'd not be a totally willing donor.  Still, she was careful and he wasn't missing the amount of blood she was taking from him, now.  With Cindy and Mark in her life, she was as happy as she had been for a long time, and the Liala project was actually making her feel useful.  At the moment, life was good for her.

Liala was prompt.  Every day at 5:32, she put her key in her door and by 5:35 was sipping her first gin and tonic of the night.  Eliza knew this because, on more than one night, she'd not left Liala's apartment.  She'd spent the next day sleeping in the closet, Liala's shades were not sufficient to block the light to a comfortable level for her, and then listening as Liala came in and went about her business.  She'd chosen a hall closet to sleep in because it was out of direct sunlight and larger.  Only after Liala came in did it occur to her that it was a good choice because it would be almost unused in the summer time.  

Liala would come in, turn the radio onto an oldies station, prepare a drink and read the paper.  She'd spend about an hour reading the paper then she'd get up and prepare supper.  The times Eliza had watched, it was a frozen dinner, which she ate in a preoccupied way.  Finishing her meal, she'd get her journal, have another drink and spend time writing in it.  By 7:30 she'd have another drink, bathe, filling the apartment with the scent of lilac, have another drink and then go to bed.  Eliza, only slightly masking her presence, stood in a dim corner of the room and watched her.  

"Too much booze," she thought.  "Way too much booze."  She felt like a voyeur, well, she was a voyeur, and she was enjoying it.  Liala was not a beautiful woman but she had a nice body and pleasant features and she obviously had a lively fantasy life.  Eliza had taken to reading her journal every day and she quickly discovered that it had two parts.  There was the real part that described her life and then there was the fantasy part that described her life as she wished it could be.  It was hard to notice at first, but there was a subtle change in hand writing that was noticeable when you looked for it.  She'd picked up on the fantasy portion when she read of a night with a man that she knew had not happened.  That's when she noticed the difference in the handwriting, and going back are rereading it, had revealed a rich sensuous fantasy life that must have never happened!  Eliza wondered how much of it she believed and how much of it she knew was a fantasy.

The second or third night Eliza spent in her apartment, Liala had followed her normal routine but instead of turning the light off and going to bed, she dimmed the light and put on some soft music.  She was naked and her skin glistened with lilac scented moisture in the dim light.  Eliza was drawn to her hourglass shape and was fascinated by her voluptuous breasts and the tempting dark triangle between her legs.  Eliza's heart raced as Liala sat on the bed and opened the drawer in the night stand next to her bed.  She'd been through every drawer in the apartment and she knew what was there.  She watched, transfixed, as Liala removed a battery-operated vibrator from the drawer.  Liala's face was flushed and a faint smile was on her face.  She removed a tube of lubricant and squeezed a little into her hands and slowly applied it to the vibrator.  She lay back on the bed, spread her legs and turned the vibrator on.

Eliza was fascinated by the sight of a good-looking woman using a vibrator to please herself.  She was torn between the look of rapt pleasure on her face and the sight of her using the vibrator to stimulate herself.  Some time passed and Liala tensed, threw her head back and quivered like a struck tuning fork.  She whimpered, went limp and rolled over on her side, her back to Eliza.  Her steady, deep breathing indicated that she was asleep.

The room was silent except for Eliza's heavy breathing.  As Liala had her orgasm, Eliza had sunk to the floor, her own body quivering and pulsing.  On all fours, breathing heavily, she attempted to gain control of her emotions.  She sat back on her haunches, still tingling, and wondered at what she'd become.  She grimaced, stood and stood next to the sleeping Liala.  Eliza gently stroked her hair, turned and vanished into the night.

Tonight, Eliza was determined to set her plan into motion.  She was convinced that Liala needed some decent sex from a good looking, attentive man to bolster her confidence and self esteem - not to mention having a good time.  The best looking man she knew, and he could be attentive, was Mark.  He'd been easy to manipulate.  She'd simply asked him to meet her at the bar.  Liala was going to be more difficult.  She had to figure out how to get her to the bar at the proper time.  She needed to be at Liala's apartment before she got home.  Since she hadn't spent the night there, she'd been with Mark, she had to go out in the sunlight.  

She was going to look as silly as she felt she realized, but a girl does what a girl's got to do!  She put on a long black, the only color she had, coat and a very wide brimmed hat along with a scarf and dark glasses.  She wore boots high enough to cover her legs and when she stood, there was no exposed flesh at all and it was hot!  At 5:00 P.M., when she left, it was 75 degrees and she looked and felt like a freak.  She traveled quickly, very quickly and unobtrusively as possible.  She was using all of her skills to remain unseen and only as she entered Liala's apartment did anything take notice of her.  The neighborhood cat took one look at her, hissed and ran like its tail was on fire.  "Guess he doesn't like black," she muttered. 

She quickly gained access to Liala's apartment with the key she'd had made, went inside and got out of the hot coat almost instantly.  For a lady that loved the cold, she'd just been through sauna hell!  She threw her stuff in the hall closet and was glad that the near setting sun was not shining in any window.  She quickly went to the kitchen and emptied all but one small drink of gin from the bottle Liala kept there.  She heard Liala at the door and she retired to the darkest corner in the room and masked her presence. 

Liala came in, turned the radio on and went to the cupboard and got the bottle of gin.  She poured and made a sour face when she realized that the bottle was empty.  She muttered an obscenity but took the drink and sat and read the paper as always. She read about an hour and then prepared a frozen dinner for herself.  She got her journal and prepared to write.  She poured the last drop or two of gin into her glass and slurped it down, making another sour face.  

Eliza was elated.  "This is going to work," she thought!

Liala wrote for a while, not nearly as long as she usually would, and then went to bathe.  Coming out of the bath naked, she came into the kitchen and drained that last drop of gin from the 1.75 liter bottle.  Eliza grinned and did her best to project going out to get another bottle to her.  Eliza's fangs deployed at the sight of all that delicious skin but she controlled herself.  Liala grimaced and  threw the bottle into the trash can.  She stomped into the bedroom and dressed.  Eliza looked at her and shook her head.  She projected dissatisfaction as Liala looked into the mirror.  Liala grimaced again and took off the ratty blouse she'd thrown on.  She found a sexy bra and put it on, something that Eliza loved to watch.  She'd never really needed a bra and she was fascinated by the device.  Liala found a much sexier blouse, more in tune with her bra, and put it on.  She looked in the mirror again and this time she smiled.  

The sun had set and Liala was only a half block away when Eliza looked out of the apartment building.  No need for concealment now, so she boldly stepped into the cooling evening and walked fast enough to close most of the distance between them.  How to get her to go to the bar?  She needed to meet Liala person to person.  Her mind raced.  Could she find a bum or a pan handler?  Someone she could rescue Liala from.  Nothing.  Liala started to cross the street, heading for her favorite liquor store when a taxi turned into the street and Eliza knew what to do.  She focused and briefly clouded the driver's mind so that he did not see Liala.  Moving at full speed, she rushed to Liala and pushed her out of the path of the oncoming taxi by mere inches.  

For a moment, they clung together, both of them panting from the nearness of the encounter.  Eliza released her looked up at her and said, "I need a drink!"  

Liala nodded and said, "I'm buying."

And thus the friendship began.  They went to the bar that Eliza suggested, oddly, the one that Mark would be coming too soon.  The claimed a back booth and chatted companionably, sipping their drinks.  Eliza noticed that Liala had ordered scotch on the rocks, not the gin and tonic she'd drink at home.  She thought it might be the price difference, so she started having their drinks put on her tab.  Liala is what could be called a big, busty, blond.  She was at least 5'8" and 140 pounds.  Eliza speculated she'd been athletic but hadn't been working out lately.  Unlike some taller women, she carried her self well, posture erect, not slumped to hide her height.  Talking to her, Eliza realized she was a gutsy lady who had overcome quite a few obstacles to graduation.  

She seemed hesitant to talk about herself but the scotch loosened her a little and she told a little about a mother that had been on drugs and a drunken father that had beaten her and sent her to school bruised and limping to the ridicule of her peers.  College was out of the question financially, but she'd managed to finish school with a 3.8 average and landing a job had only taken a couple of weeks.  That's when she'd started keeping the journal, which Eliza had read several times.   Talking to her was far better.  She seemed straight forward and honest and was not prone to embellish as she was in the journal. Eliza wondered why she'd been in the park with the gun that night.  She just didn't seem like a quitter.  Well, tonight was not the night to probe.  Other things were planned.

"Hi Eliza," Mark boomed.  "Hey, introduce me to your beautiful friend," he said spotting Liala.  The two ladies sat together and Mark sat opposite them.  He took over the role of host and ordering the drinks.  Eliza grinned.  She loved it when she could drink for free.  Eliza could sense Liala's hesitation toward Mark so she tried to make her feel at ease.  Why be a vampire is you don't use what you have?  As the three of them chatted and flirted, Mark diplomatically flirting equally with both of them, Liala relaxed and actually started having fun.  

It was 9:30 and time for phase two of Eliza's plan.  She reached into her purse and pushed the test button on a beeper she'd just purchased.  The beeping sound was clearly audible to all three of them.  She pulled it from her purse, looked at it and frowned.  Shaking her head, she said, "I'm sorry guys, I have got to go."  The expected protests came, but she was adamant.  "I gotta!" she said.  "You two have fun and do every thing I'd do, ok?" she asked with a wicked grin.  Mark and Liala looked at each other for a moment and then readily agreed.  Eliza hurriedly left.  

"Damn," she thought.  "That was almost too easy."  Then she grinned.  Well, she'd helped a little but there did seem to be a good chemistry between Liala and Mark.  She sincerely hoped both of them would get lucky tonight.

She wondered if Cindy was still up.  She felt sort of lonely and a little company would be nice.