The Vampire's Apprentice

Sam was getting restless. He had completely destroyed his rope. He liked his human. He liked being inside. But he also liked being outside. He scratched at the door and dug at the floor off and on throughout the day until deep gouges marked the wood and vinyl all around the area. He couldn't take much more inside! He whined and paced any room Kitty was in, circling her and asking him to take him out. Why were they still inside?

Clancy appeared after dark. He was immaculately dressed, as always, and went straight to work. He ignored Kitty entirely. It was as if she and the dog did not exist. He did feel a little sorry for the dog. She was making him suffer for something that wasn't his fault.
 
There was the straw, and the camel's back broke. If there was one thing that overrode curiosity, it was the suffering of another. Kitty approached him herself that night.
"Fine. I yield. This is pointless."
 
Clancy glanced toward her idly. "Oh? You yeild? Yeild what?" He paused. "Oh, yes, the issue about your past." He turned away. "Perhaps later."
 
Sam followed Kitty and sat by the bed. He laid his head on the edge of the bed and gave her a long, soulful look. He wanted out! He wanted out so badly. Why couldn't he go outside?

Clancy left Kitty to it. When she and the dog disappeared into the bedroom, he went down into the kitchen and wrote a note before going back to work.

Miss Kitty,
I have deemed you unable to care for the animal. I will remove the dog tomorrow evening and set him up with better owners.
Clancy
 
Kitty lay sprawled atop the bed, trying hard to ignore that desperate look Sam was giving. It was unfortunate, Clancy hadn't exactly specified when "later" was. She was about ready to drift off waiting for him....
 
Clancy left. He fetched a small bag of food - enough for one day - and left it on the table with the note. And he left her to wait. She was not ready to tell him. Not really. He wanted her ready and willing and eager to tell him.
 
She felt numb. A part of her was happy, and a part of her did not want to see the hound disappear. They seemed to create an equilibrium of emotions and instead of feeling either, she simply felt none. The whole day went by this way, feeling nothing.

Since practicality was not an emotion, that seemed to be the small amount of sense she clung to. It was not her fault she couldn't care for the dog, Clancy was the one who had decided to lock the doors. She had done her best in spite of this, but it was ultimately his choice to make. Kitty didn't plan to interfere.
 
CLancy appeared in the evening as usual. He stood in the shadows, watching Kitty. He was there, hidden, for nearly an hour before he spoke.
"Your behavior is unacceptable and hurts others as well as yourself," he said flatly. "Do you understand this?"
 
The girl practically jumped out of her skin at the sound of his voice. She whirled to face him, a startled expression to her face. It didn't go away, either.
 
Clancy gave her a moment. "I enjoy our casual relationship, one I doubt any familiar has ever enjoyed with a master. I do not particularly want a master slave relationship, but I will not have a familiar who will not obey or answer my questions. Do you understand?"
 
She gave a small nod, not daring to take her eyes off of him. Something had finally clicked, and Kitty discovered a certain fearful reverence for the vampire. He was more powerful than she by quite a lot; her life was not worth losing over this.
 
"Then we have an understanding," he said bluntly. "You may keep the dog. For now. And I expect that dog smell to be gone by tomorrow."
 
"Good," Clancy said simply. He turned away. "Rest tonight." He went downstairs and re-set the alarm. Now she would be allowed to leave, should she wish to, during the day.
 
A massive mixture of emotions came flooding back all at once. Relief, pain, fear, guilt, worry, and many others. She almost cried, but fell asleep before having a chance to do so.
 
Sam woke Kitty before the sun was down. He stood near the head of her bed barking. He wanted out! And if he couldn't go out, then she had to entertain him!
 
"Stahp, Sam, please," Kitty muttered, sitting up blindly and rubbing her face. His barking was giving her a nasty headache. She went down the stairs and checked to find the door unlocked, so for the first time in... one... three... five days? Six? Sam went outside.
That, and Kitty actually slept through a night. More or less.

Give it another hour and some coffee before she started working on the odor. Things were slower upon rebooting, but by the end of the day the ammonia was pretty much gone and Kitty had lost both her sense of smell and the whites of her eyes—they were red, now, and stung like heck, but she didn't care. She didn't care one bit.
 
Once Sam was out, he stayed out and refused to go back inside for hours. He rolled in the dirt and frolicked through the grass and made a right mess of himself. Then he dashed inside and started running all over the house, shedding dirt and grass everywhere.
 
Oh, lovely. Sam goes back outside immediately and gets a bath, and it's unfortunately dusk by the time she puts him inside again. Such a wonderful mess to see all over the carpet this time of night.
Sigh.
 
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