"No, don't worry, Dor. I didn't really mean it. After all, one of my former drool objects was a vampire. Yeah, I guess he does fit into your ALIVE/DEAD category with Kai and LP." DebLei paused to listen as Dorotea told her that LP and Cic had mixed up their cell phones and could she please get them to switch back? The Nurse could be heard in the background trying to convince the LP that she was NOT "m'lady."

"Will do. I'm sure they'll listen to me. Yes, I'll bring him a few hair scrunchies as bribery."

Deb hung up the phone, pausing to watch as visions of the General floated across her computer screen. Sighing wistfully, she pushed her chair away from under her desk and stood up. Turning around, however, she halted in mid-step, frozen by the black-clad vision before her.

"A former drool object, Little Flower?" the cool, almost-soothing voice stated. "is that what truly what I am?"

DebLei swallowed hard, unable to speak, all her Ho-ness having momentarily leaked out of her.

"L... LaCroix?" she nearly meeped. She hadn't seen the ancient vampire since the day she packed up and moved out of the Shrine.

"Really, ma petite, did you think I wouldn't find you eventually? You * are * mine, after all."

The Padawan Secretary snapped out of her moment of weakness at the obvious attempt to Alpha her sunk in.

"I'm * not * yours, LaCroix. And don't call me that anymore!"

"Don't call you what, ma petite?" he said, stepping closer to her. "You've always liked whatever I chose to call you in the past."

"That-"ma petite"-that's what I don't want you calling me!"

"As you wish, Little Flower," LaCroix purred, attempting to pull her into his embrace.

DebLei pushed away from him. "Don't call me * that * either. It's not my name."

The vampire tsked her, shaking his head in amusement. "My, my. How you have changed in the past year, ma petite. I hardly recognize you as the same girl who once frolicked in the Shrine with my other devotees. I never understood why you chose to leave us."

"I'm not the same gi-woman anymore," DebLei protested. "And in case you failed to notice it the first time, I didn't exactly have a choice. The Shrine closed its doors, remember? As in...we all got kicked out onto the streets of Toronto, left to fend for ourselves. And I don't exactly recall you jumping to find us all a new place to crash, either. Now, if you excuse me, I have errands to run." The Ho turned on her heel, placing her back to the vampire.

Stalking to the door, she whirled around to find him watching her with that oh-so-familiar smirk curling his lips... lips that she had once found so sensuous and kissable.

"Don't be here when I get back."

~*~*~*~

Deb's first errand was to the clinic, where LP was holed up with the Nurse's servant. It turned out he was afraid of Dorotea's new dead guy.

It took awhile to convince him that he hadn't been talking to Dor the whole time, and with the incentive of the hair scrunchies, LP and Cic finally switched phones.

When she left, they were watching QVC and simultaneous chattering to their respective women.

DebLei shook her head as she closed the door behind her... somehow phone sex and talk of hair scrunchies did NOT mix well, but then, neither of the EA's seemed to notice anyway.

Her next stop was Shana's flop. Scott had asked her to order a few things to make the OSA Director's homecoming "special." They'd arrived by express mail that morning.

Scot took them and thanked her, seeming not to notice the way the assistant Secretary fixated on his slightly pouty lips when he talked. Or his nice, tight * censored * when he turned to walk away.

~*~*~*~

With nothing else to do, DebLei then decided to head to the bar. Kendra was still there, throwing darts at the Jedi Temple recruiting poster. They'd had a contest last night-started during and after doing double tequila shots and commiserating over a general lack of... well the General-to see who could hit Yoda on the nose. The poster-and not to mention a few of the "miners"-was now riddled with puncture marks.

Yoda's nose remained in tact.

She was about to see if she could do better at hitting the nose when sober, but Judy flagged her down.

"What's up, Judy?" she asked.

"That's what I'd like to know." The bartender handed the secretary a piece of paper. "I found this on my fax machine today when I started work. It's a request to place an order for a shipment of "the house special" from some place called The Raven. And it was sent from you office."

Uhoh.

DebLei grabbed the fax and was horrified to find her fax number and letterhead on the requested order.

"Oh shit." She said in a low whisper, facing draining of all color.

"I take it you know something about this, then?" Judy asked.

"Not really, no, but I have a feeling I'm not going to like it."

DebLei didn't wait for a reaction; she just turned and exited the bar in a hurry. Behind her, she could hear Judy call out "well, should I place the order or not?"

~*~*~*~

DebLei couldn't believe her yes when she returned to what had formerly been her nice little office. Her desk and computer were still there, but Diebin's desk was gone, and the whole place had been redecorated rather lavishly to look like-- no, it couldn't be!

It looked like the Shrine!

Busts and statues of Roman art everywhere. Lots of tapestries and hanging veils. A divan where Die's desk used to be.

LaCroix was nowhere to be seen, of course, but the sinking feeling in her stomach told DebLei she knew where he was.

She burst into the General's office and nearly fainted when she saw it decked out in a fashion similar to that of the outer office. Only the General's desk had been retained and Lucien LaCroix lounged behind it with a definite "cat-that-ate-the-canary" look on his face.

"What the * censored * is this!?" DebLei exclaimed.

"This," LaCroix purred as a reply "is my new home."

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