Death Do Us Part

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"Good morning, Lovely!" a woman smiles when she sees Lovely walking to the door. "Wonderful day today, isn't it?"

"We're closed for today," Lovely breathes, reaching for the curtains over the windows to draw them closed. "Go shop somewhere else."

The woman quickly backs away from the door, shocked. Lovely's never been so cold before. What could possibly have happened this early in the morning?

Lovely strikes a match and lights up a series of candles, placing them everywhere around the shop. It looked like a candlelit mass or a room full of ghosts wearing elaborate colors. She took a chair from the kitchen and placed it in front of the door containing the room where Luffy was held. She takes a seat, keeping the gun she had, resting on her lap in case he managed to escape. She wouldn't dare take her eyes off the door. She would stay there for days if she had to.

Usopp and Chopper raced down the stairs to meet her.

"Lovely, what happened?" Chopper asks. "Why is the shop so dark?"

Lovely didn't answer. She wouldn't budge from her seat. A hand on her shoulder startled her out of her raging thoughts. She looks up to find Usopp kneeling to be level with her face.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

Lovely shakes her head and wraps her arms around him. She trembles under the weight of fear, confusion, and anger. "Why does it look like Luffy?! Is it trying to kill my heart before it kills me next?!"

"It's a vamp, Lovely," Usopp says. "Of course, they would do something as cruel as this."

"But they're not shapeshifters, are they?" Chopper asks. "How can it change its appearance to look like Luffy?"

Lovely shrugs. "I don't know. There was nothing about shapeshifting vamps from what we were told in our first year of training. The only other form they can transform into is a bat."

Chopper looks at the red stain on the neckline of Lovely's shift. "Speaking of bats, let me see where it bit you."

Lovely tugged on the neckline, ensuring her breasts were still covered. Chopper pressed his fingers down on the bite mark, making Lovely wince. He breathed a sigh of relief when nothing but blood flowed down. "Good. No pus or venom is coming out, but we still have to patch it up."

Lovely leans back in her chair, relieved but confused. Why didn't the vamp eat her after a single bite? That would have been the perfect opportunity to take her and leave for its cave to tear her apart. It could have turned her if it wanted to. Why didn't that happen?

"You're lucky to be alive, Lovely," Usopp says. "Don't you think it's weird that he didn't attack you from the beginning?"

She nods. "Yes. Vamps don't normally do that."

"Didn't you say it was shot when you brought it in?" Chopper asks as he patches up the mark on Lovely's chest. "He was probably too weak to attack you at the moment."

"Until he took a sip of my blood!" Lovely exclaims.

"Not even after that," Usopp says. "I know how these vamps are. He would have attacked you as he was escorted to that room because human blood gives them unmeasurable energy. But he didn't. He cooperated with you."

The more Lovely thought about it, the more confusing it became. "Do you mean to tell me that this vamp is tame?"

Chopper and Usopp shrugged. "It could be."

Lovely laughs aloud, nearly falling back on her chair. "A tame vamp?! That's impossible! All of them are monsters with no self-control! How could they be tamed?!"