A/N: This is going to be the longest author's note of the series, but I'll try to be brief! So I wrote this in about… nine days? I've always wanted to write a vampire AU, and I had vague ideas, but nothing concrete enough to develop. I came across a writing prompt somewhere (can't remember where now, I'm sorry!) that was "What are you counting?" "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." and it sort of spiraled from there. I borrowed some vampire lore from the Vampire Academy series, some from The Vampire Diaries TV show, and some I just made up myself! So yeah, I decided a tattoo artist/Vampire AU had to exist and… here we are.

Thanks to my best friend Domi (GlasssMenagerie) for being my beta and for confirming that this wasn't a giant mess! The story has already been written and updates will happen once a week for 5 more weeks :)

The bell over the door rang just as Emma was cleaning up for the day. "Sorry, we're closed for the night," the blonde said, not looking up.

"You don't have time to squeeze me in?"

Emma recognized the voice immediately. "For you? Of course. How many?"

"Three." Regina hopped up on the table and lay on her front.

The last tattoo Emma had done had just healed, and Regina was back.

One, two, three, Emma dutifully added tally marks.

"What are you counting?" She finally decided to ask, after months of adding to the brunette's back tattoo.

Regina turned her head to face the tattoo artist. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

That was how it had been. Every month or so, Regina would come into the Ever After tattoo parlor, wearing a backless shirt or dress, asking for one, two, three more tallies to be added to the ever growing scoreboard that went from the base of her neck, down her back, and this was the first day Emma decided to ask about the tallies. The women got to know each other over the months, well, as well as you could while one was keeping a massive secret, until today, the day Emma squeezed Regina in at the end of a long day, and her secret came crashing through the front window in the form of a pale, red-eyed monster.

Regina sprung up from the table with ninja-like reflexes, whipping a wooden stake out from her knee-high boot and launching it with more force than Emma thought a human was capable of. The stake landed firmly in the center of the monster's chest, and they fell to the ground, their pale white skin turning a sickly gray.

Across the tattoo shop, Emma screamed, and Regina whipped around to see another monster holding Emma in his grip, his back turned. Like lighting, Regina got another stake and plunged it through his back before he knew what hit him, and he fell to the ground with a deafening thud. The brunette took a vial of some purple liquid from her pocket and poured it onto the corpses, dissolving it into a pile of dust before Emma's eyes. Regina made eye contact with Emma who'd hardly had time to put down her tattoo gun before everything had gone down. She hopped back up on the table as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. "Make it two more."

Emma was shellshocked. "Do you want to tell me what just happened?" She hadn't moved yet, rubbing the area on her neck that the monster had held in a vice grip only seconds before.

Regina looked at Emma. "If I said 'if I told you, I'd have to kill you,' you'd think I was full of it. But believe me when I say, you don't want to know."

Emma took a step forward. "Okay, well I'll tell you what I saw, and you can choose to confirm what I'm saying, or say nothing at all. You're counting monsters. Monsters are real. You're someone who kills monsters as a... hobby? Am I on the right track?"

The brunette looked at Emma with a smile that was somehow a mix of condescension and relief. "Sure." She turned back over, "Would you mind adding those last two? I'm sure we'd both like to get out of here."

On autopilot, Emma dipped the needle back into the tattoo ink she'd been using before, and added two more tallies to Regina's back, bringing the total to thirty-seven. "Thirty-seven monsters, you're kind of a badass, huh?"

Regina laughed quietly, "I wouldn't put it quite like that."

Even though Emma was still scared shitless, she was still somewhat relieved that she was the only one left in the shop that night. If Zelena, Lacey, Robin, or Neal were around, they probably wouldn't have let what they had just seen go so easily. In fact, they probably would have called the police.

If Emma had an ounce of sense, she probably should have called the police, but something about Regina's ease in dealing with the intruders put her mind at rest. Neither of them spoke for the rest of the session, both locked up in their own little worlds.

When Emma was done, the brunette sat up, examining the new marks with the help of two mirrors. "Perfect, as always. Twenty dollars a mark still?"

Emma wouldn't usually undersell her work like that, but Regina had become a regular, and with that and their growing friendship, Emma cut the woman a deal.

"Tonight, it's on the house. You kind of saved my life."

I endangered your life Regina thought to herself. "It's really not a problem." Emma covered the fresh tattoo with a clear bandage. "Thanks again Emma." The brunette left the shop with a wave, and Emma closed the door behind her, before realizing how ridiculous that was now that the window was shattered.

"Regina, wait!" Emma called into the night. She turned around, raising her eyebrow expectantly. "What do I do about the window? I can't exactly give the security tape to the insurance company... I assume what you do is a secret?"

"Fuck." She heard the woman curse under her breath. She walked back, stepping through the broken window instead of the perfectly functioning door. "Give me the tape, I'll deal with it."

"You'll deal with it? This window costs at least a couple thousand dollars!" Emma stepped through the window after Regina and ran after her as she went to the back.

"Don't worry about it," Regina answered, putting the security tape in her bag. She took a hand and put it on Emma's shoulder, forcing the blonde to look at her. "Go home, go to sleep, and everything will be fine tomorrow, I promise."

"Okay."

Regina seemed surprised at how quickly the blonde relented, but she quickly schooled her expression, stepping back. "Great. I'll see you around." Regina hopped through the window again. "Lock up anything valuable as best you can! There still is a gaping hole in the building and this is River City.

The brunette walked off again, leaving Emma with an awful lot of glass to sweep up. She made quick work of cleaning up as best she could, before packing up all the equipment in the shop and locking it in the same safe they kept their cash.

Dutifully, Emma turned on the alarm before walking out the door and locking it behind her, giving one last wary glance to the shattered window before going home.

"God I'm starving," she muttered.

The hair on Emma's arms stood up as she passed the alley by the shop. She felt like she was being watched, but she chalked that up to nerves and paranoia; she'd just found out that monsters were real, she was allowed to be a little bit terrified.

::::

Emma showed up at Ever After the next morning, having come up with a somewhat convoluted excuse as to why the window was broken and the security tape was missing. At first, she played with the idea of playing dumb like it happened after she left, but she quickly realized she'd stupidly put her faith in Regina's ability to fix the problem overnight, and had swept up the glass before she left.

She was going over the story again and again in her head as she walked to work, but when she rounded the last corner, she realized she wouldn't need it; the window looked perfect, as if there was never any incident. She let out a small sigh of relief as she walked through the door.

"Morning Neal," the blonde said.

"Morning Swan," the man answered. "Could you explain to me why all our equipment was locked in the safe and the drapes weren't pulled?"

"Oh, um..." Emma hadn't thought this through; she had a completely different story prepared. "A weird guy came in just as I was closing up, it got be a bit frazzled. Sorry, won't happen again."

"It better not," the man said as he was readying his station for the day. "We're in River City; an open window is an open invitation."

"Right. Sorry." Emma looked around the shop, trying to find any evidence of the past night's tiff. "Is it a little chilly in here?"

"No... you alright Emma?" Neal gave the blonde a curious look before standing up. "You look a little pasty." He crossed the floor and put a hand on Emma's forehead. "You feel kinda cold..."

Emma shrugged the man off. "Nah, I'm fine. I just didn't sleep super well last night."

"Okay..." he dropped it, and got back to preparing his station.

Emma tried her best to shake off the nagging feeling that something was wrong, and started going through her morning routine. Get a set of new needles, line up the ink she thought she'd need for the day, before heading to the back and seeing what Neal had brought in for breakfast.

She eyed the breakfast sandwich and coffee appreciatively, before plopping down on one of the overstuffed sofas and devouring the sandwich and coffee at a most un-ladylike speed. She still felt thirsty, so she took one of the reusable water bottles she left at the shop and filled it at the water cooler, before stepping back out onto the floor as she guzzled the bottle.

"Jeez, Em slow down!" Neal said as he saw the blonde downing the water. "What are you, a camel?"

Emma finished the bottle before she addressed her co-worker. "My throat's just super dry, I feel like I haven't drank water in decades."

Neal looked at Emma like he didn't believe a word she was saying. "Are you sure you're okay? You can't be working if–" Emma put up a hand, cutting him off.

"I know I can't work if I'm sick. And I'm not. I'm just thirsty, lay off."

Neal put his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright."

Zelena and Lacey strolled in five minutes before opening, as usual.

"Morning you two," Emma and Neal said in unison.

"Good morning rabble," Zelena sing-songed back at them in her British accent.

"Morning Emma, hey Neal," Lacey waved at the two in turn. "Sorry we're late."

"We're not late," Zelena said quickly, as she did almost every morning. "The shop opens in five; we're early."

Emma rolled her eyes as Zelena started their morning ritual of racing around the shop in order to set up in five minutes while Lacey took her sweet time.

Just as the clock struck ten, Zelena slid to a stop in front of her station, sitting down on her stool with a bottle of ink in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other, and a breakfast sandwich clenched between her teeth. Emma would pay good money to be around the day Zelena mistakenly drank from her ink bottle; it'd happen one day.

Lacey sauntered over in her five-inch heels at five-past-ten, never particularly fussed about being ready on time. If she wasn't such a good artist, she would've been fired months ago. But that would've also meant Robin would have had to be at work before ten, which he never was. He owned the shop, so he could set his own hours, much to everyone else's chagrin.

The Brit never came in before noon, and he always left around six. If he weren't so nice, Emma would hate his guts. He took a chance on her and offered her an apprenticeship when no one else in town would. She had just got out of a stint in prison after a break-and-enter gone sideways, and no one else would give an ex-con a chance, save for Robin Lockwood.

Emma's first appointment wasn't until the afternoon, so she spent her morning sauntering around the shop, trying to calm her restlessness, while drinking gallons and gallons of water to no avail.

"I'm taking a lunch break!" Emma said to no one in particular as she exited the shop, taking another full bottle of water with her. The blonde hardly left during the day, but she could tell she was driving everyone crazy with her constant pacing. The sun was unusually warm for a fall day in River City, and Emma squinted her eyes as the sun continued to shine in her eyes. She walked around the block, stopping at an In-N-Out and ordering two double-doubles with fries and a large coke.

There goes me trying to be a vegetarian, Emma thought to herself as she took a bite of the first burger. Her hunger was still insatiable, but she tried to eat slowly for the sake of the others in the restaurant. She tried to distract herself from her hunger by scrolling through her phone.

'Two found dead in River City alleyway' a headline flashed across her twitter feed. Upon closer inspection, it was the same alley that Emma had a weird feeling about when she passed the night before. That could've been me she thought to herself.

She moved onto the second burger, feeling no more satisfied than when she sat down. Emma took a sip of her coke before hissing in pain, putting the cup down. On top of her uncontrollable hunger, her jaw started aching. "Fuck, I probably have a cavity." Emma felt around her mouth with her tongue, but didn't feel anything out the ordinary. "No more sugar for me," she said, rolling her eyes.

Emma finished her burger and downed the rest of her water, eyeing the large coke longingly. She took one more ill-advised sip and suffered the consequences by way of another shooting pain starting from her jaw and taking residence right behind her eyes.

She took the rest of her lunch break before she had to be back at Ever After walking around the neighborhood. When she got back to the shop, her client was already waiting for her. "You look a little flushed there Emma," Lacey said, looking up from the feather that she was tattooing on someone's collar bone. "Go for a run?"

Emma looked at the brunette quizzically. "No?"

Zelena got up from where she was sitting behind the reception desk and stepped into Emma's personal space, taking the blonde's face in her hand. "God, you burn worse than I do; you've got a sunburn!"

"What?" Emma reached over the front desk and picked up the mirror that Zelena always had on it, "well fuck." Emma's cheeks were red with an obvious sunburn, and although it was warm out, it wasn't that hot.

"I forgot sunscreen," Emma said by way of an answer.

"Are you alright Emma?" Robin had been watching the exchange from where he drew up his designs, "You seem a bit off."

The anger that had been simmering under Emma's skin all day boiled over. "I'm fine, can everyone stop asking me? Get off my back, jeez." She turned her attention to the girl who was waiting for her. "Give me five minutes and I'll be ready for you!"

The girl, Ruby, gave Emma a tight-lipped smile before Emma walked off to the back to wash her hands and get her station ready. Emma had drawn up Ruby's design request the day before during some off-time, and she couldn't wait to show the redhead what she came up with. She had wanted a design that incorporated a wolf and the moon, and Emma had come up with this design in which one of the wolf's eyes was a full moon, and in the shadows of the forest there was another wolf howling.

When she left the back, the girl was sitting exactly where she left her, swinging her feet absentmindedly. "Ready?"

"Yeah!" She got up and made her way to Emma's station, sitting on the bench. "What'd you come up with?"

She held up her creation proudly, watching the girl's eyes widen almost comically. "Oh my God that's amazing!" Emma grinned, never tiring of hearing people praise her work.

"Anything you want changed? Is the size okay?" Emma asked.

"Nope, it's perfect!" Ruby looked at the picture. "It'll still fit on my right shoulder, right?" Emma nodded. "Great!"

She lay down on her stomach, much like Regina usually would, and put her hands under her head.

"Would you like a pillow?"

"Nah, I'm okay."

Emma got the black and white ink ready, before she sat down and applied the stencil to Ruby's back. She gave the girl a mirror and held one up herself. "Placement okay?"

Ruby got up and angled the mirror this way and that until she got a clear look at where her tattoo would be. "Yep, that's exactly where I want it!" She handed the mirror back to Emma before she returned to her lying down position.

Emma got to work doing the outline. "Is there a meaning behind the wolf?"

"Yeah. My Granny hated that she lived in River City, but when my mom left me in her arms to take care of me, she did everything she could to keep me safe. I always used to roll my eyes when she told me 'the wolves roam at night,' and not to be out after dark..." the girl sighed, "but she was right. Sorry..." Ruby apologized as she shifted, reaching for a tissue to wipe her eyes. "My Granny was murdered a few weeks ago... they still don't know who did it. But it was because I forgot to get something from the grocery store. We had a fight, and I told her if it was so damn important she should get it herself... she stormed out and I never saw her again."

Ruby took a shuddering breath. "She's dead because of me. And I wanted to get this tattoo to remind myself of her... and to remind myself that the wolves really do roam at night."

Emma was shocked. "Wow, I'm so sorry. You have to know it's not your fault though. It's the fault of whatever monster did that to her."

"I want to believe that, I really do." The redhead lied back down and closed her eyes. "I miss her so much."

Her closed eyes told Emma she wasn't interested in talking anymore, so she got back to tattooing the design onto Ruby's skin. When pinpricks of blood started springing up on her back, Emma felt dizzy. She put her tattoo gun down before putting her hands over her eyes and breathing deeply.

"Everything okay?" Ruby asked, opening one eye.

"Yeah, just need to grab some water." Emma got up from her station and nearly tripped over her own feet as she made a break for the back room.

"Get a grip Swan," Emma muttered to herself as she breathed in through her nose, out through her mouth, in an attempt to stop her head from spinning.

She drank more water in an attempt to quell the burning dryness in the back of her throat, but again, to no avail. Her heart was beating like a hummingbird's in her chest, which wasn't helping her overall queasiness.

"This is what you get for eating meat again," Emma rationalized. She went back out with a smile plastered on her face, and got back to tattooing the redhead.

"Everything okay?" Ruby asked when Emma sat down.

"Yup."

They fell back into silence; Ruby's eyes closed like she was taking a nap, and Emma focusing on the tattoo she was doing and nothing else. Not the hunger, not the thirst, not the dizziness, just the tattoo.

It was a few hours until Emma was done the last bit of shading on the wolf. "Done." She put her tattoo needle down triumphantly, happy she managed to get through the entire piece without throwing up or passing out.

Ruby got up, stretching the limbs that had been still for the last couple of hours, and took the mirror that Emma was handing to her.

Once again, Emma stood behind her, angling a mirror that she was holding until Ruby got the right angle and was able to see the finished piece. "Oh my god thank you Emma, you've outdone yourself!" The redhead sprang up and threw her arms around Emma, who cautiously returned the gesture.

"Would you mind if I took a picture for my portfolio?"

"Not at all!" Ruby turned back around and brushed her hair over her shoulder. Emma cleaned up the last bits of blood that had came through before she brought out her SLR and snapped a few photos.

"All done. Zelena will settle you up at the front. Thanks for coming!" Emma extended a hand which Ruby shook enthusiastically. "If I get another tattoo, I'm coming back and asking for you specifically!"

"That's very kind," Emma said, smiling at the bubbly girl.

Ruby walked away and started talking to Zelena while Emma got to tidying up. Ruby was her only booked client for the day, but there were always walk-ins, so she made sure her station was clean and ready, should someone stop by.

"Hey, Emma?" Robin approached the blonde as she was doing her final wipe-down. "A word?"

"What's up?" Emma asked, throwing the alcohol-soaked cloth into the laundry bin.

"Um..." the man rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Spit it out Robin, what's going on?" Emma had been on edge all day, and the usually straightforward man tiptoeing around her was probably more irritating than it should be.

"I think you should take the rest of the day off." He said, the words tumbling out of his mouth. "You really don't seem well."

Emma rolled her eyes before picking up her bag from behind her station. "Fine. See you tomorrow."

Emma walked out of the store with her head held high, before shielding her face from the early-evening sun and walking home.

::::

It was a week before Regina came back, and Emma had been getting worse and worse as the days went on.

"Are you sure you're good to close up Emma?" Neal asked, one hand on the door.

"For sure, no worries. See you tomorrow!"

"If you say so. I live nearby so call me if you need anything!" He said, before taking his leave and leaving Emma alone in the shop.

Everyone had been 'careful' around her the last week, and it was making Emma more and more angry. Sure she wasn't feeling great, and sure she looked like death, but that didn't mean everyone needed to make a big thing about it.

She heard the bell ding over the door a moment later, and assumed it was Neal coming back for something he forgot. When she looked up, however, she was greeted with warm brown eyes and a smile she found herself missing on the days she didn't see it.

"Regina."

"Hey. Have time for an addition?"

Emma snapped out of the reverie that she was put into every time she set eyes on the brunette. "Regina, we need to talk."

"Ooh, serious," she snarked as Emma took her by the hand and pulled her into the back room.

"I think I'm dying." Emma said, dropping the brunette's hand.

"Whoa," Regina took a step forward. "What do you mean? Have you seen a doctor?"

"No, I haven't seen a doctor, because they'd probably think I was insane!" Emma's eyes were darting frantically. "I can't sleep, I'm hungry all the time, but no matter how much I eat I'm never full!"

Regina eyed the blonde. "Maybe you should consider a more nutritious diet..."

"It's not only that!" Emma continued, as if she hadn't heard what Regina said at all. "My throat is dry like I've never had a drink of water in my life, my jaw aches constantly but I don't have any cavities, and no matter how much sunscreen I slather on, I keep getting sunburned! It's not even that sunny! The sight of blood makes me woozy and I can't focus on anything anymore except how goddamn thirsty I am... I think one of those monsters gave me something, I don't know… I don't know what to do."

Regina had been taking in everything Emma was saying, and at the mention of blood, she perked up and sprung into action. Regina took the blonde's chin between her thumb and forefingers, turning her head this way and that. She stepped back sighing, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You're in transition," she said, before drawing a strange looking gun and pointing it at the blonde's chest.