Is this actually happening?

Both of them just stood there staring at each other. It was like the giant commotion going on right beside them didn't exist. Valentina narrowed her eyes, trying to judge whether Dahlia's words were genuine, all the while, Dahlia had her mind racing as she tried to figure out what the hell was wrong with her!

She had never experienced emotions like this and her quick witted nature had deteriorated. The sluggishness of her thinking was similar to how it was when she had her bouts of intense anxiety but… it didn't feel as bad in this case.

Despite not being bad, she was still confused and a little scared by her current mental state. It was like she was seeing colour for the first time in a grey world, and no matter how refreshing or exciting it could be, without an explanation, it was bound to be unknown and scary. The more she thought about it, the more conflicted she was. She felt excited but… maybe there was something wrong with her?

The Archduchess had been watching closely the whole time. When the nobleman first got kicked, there had been surprise, followed quickly by relief. After that, the girl had frozen up staring at her and although her initial words of assurance seemed genuine, the more time passed, the more Dahlia had started seeming anxious over something.

Looking at her, she couldn't help but have a small smile that she hid behind her hand. Seeing this girl tremble in front of her was too cute. Like a precious bunny that's confused by a sudden change in surroundings. Despite not being able to know what Dahlia was thinking, Valentina settled on treating her with the care that a small fragile pet deserves.

She leaned over while maintaining eye contact and gently placed a hand on her shoulder, all while giving a soft and placating smile.

"You don't need to worry about anything you know. I'll handle everything and make sure nothing bad comes from this. Just wait here and try to relax, then let's talk."

Watching as the woman turned around, Dahlia felt more of those atypical feelings surface. Her heart was racing as she repeated mentally what was said over and over.

'Seriously, what is happening to me? Is this some kind of arrhythmia? Do I need medical attention? But…'

She thought back on those words again. The woman's voice had been low and soothing. She had clearly noticed Dahlia's state to some degree, but didn't seem too concerned. Not only that, she said to wait and with that instruction in mind, that is what Dahlia decided to do. Trying to steady her breathing, heart, and racing thoughts, she looked back up to see what the woman was doing and her jaw nearly hit the floor.

Only a few metres away, Valentina had one foot held atop Stavian's throat while a middle aged man was being held firmly by the collar of an overly expensive suit. It didn't take a genius to figure out that this was almost certainly Duke Alcaster, the father of the child that just got brutally assaulted.

Even as his son was pinned firmly with one foot, he couldn't do anything. The woman in front of him was too strong and far too intimidating. She hadn't developed the 'Devil' moniker for nothing.

"You- Archduchess, what do you think you're doing? Have you finally lost your mind?!"

The man was practically spitting in his rage as he screamed it all out. Meanwhile, Dahlia blinked.

'Did he say Archduchess?'

Before that thought could proceed however, Valentina had swapped hands, now holding him by the hair at his scalp before she dragged him around and made him fall to his knees. The man had already been dwarfed by her by about a foot in height and now on his knees, he looked even more out of his depth.

As if this were the most normal event in the world, she just looked down at him and smiled.

"Even if I had 'finally lost my mind,' what does it matter to you, dog? Hmm? Did you forget your place? I came here because of a favour I owed you, but make no mistake, I choose how I pay you back."

She looked between him and his son before clicking her tongue. She was clearly still enraged from earlier, but she was holding it back.

"At the moment, I think I'll change the terms of our agreement. The way I repay you is to let you and your son leave this place without being in a casket; what do you think, good deal?"

The entire room had shivered at that. No one dared act against her. Sure, she was just one woman, but she was incredibly powerful for her age. Not only that, but at the end of the day, she was the Archduchess. Especially when it was within her territory, what she says goes and no one could speak against her without some form of consequence.

Weakly, the Duke sputtered out a response. It seemed the reality of the situation was dawning on him. He didn't know why she was so upset at his son, but that hardly mattered. All that was important at this moment was getting out of that situation as quickly as possible.

"Y-your Grace… thank you for showing these humble subjects your leniency. Whatever the issue was, I'll be sure never to let it happen again and I will thoroughly rebuke my son for what he's done."

The man's voice was trembling which made Valentina smirk, but she was otherwise unimpressed. With a quick twist of her body, she threw the duke by his hair to the ground a few steps away, then on a whim, she also kicked the son to his father. The entirety of the debutant winced hearing the crack of ribs mixed with a guttural cry.

Blood slowly dripped from the Duke's scalp down into his face as he picked up his son as gently as he could before giving a curt bow and exciting the room like the wind was carrying his feet. No one spoke. The only ones who moved were those getting out of the way to let the man through. It was as if they expected the first person to act would be slaughtered by the devil in front of them.

Valentina watched the two leave. She was ticked off she didn't just kill them there, but they were too important to off just like that. While she may have the authority to do so, the ramifications would be too extreme to make it worth it.

Once the two had left her sight, she looked around, finally noticing that there was a crowd watching her with baited breath. Then she glanced at the girl behind her who still seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. Sighing, she addressed the attendees in her typical business voice. It was firm and emotionally detached.

"Alright. Shows over. All of you get back to enjoying whatever it is you do at these events. Go scheme or something, I don't know. We need some cleaners over here as well unless you want people to start slipping on blood and teeth."

Feeling like she had done her due diligence, she immediately stopped caring about anyone else and returned to Dahlia's side. Immediately that low and gentle voice returned, tickling Dahlia's ears and making her feel all funny.

"How about we go somewhere more private? I can see you have a lot on your mind, so let's talk."

Still not fully in her right mind, Dahlia didn't speak. She just did a small nod and let the other woman take the lead until they ended up in the garden, surrounded only by robust flowering bushes, a dim lamp post, and the night sky.

Once there, Valentina turned back to look at Dahlia, but she didn't say anything. She wanted the girl to gather her thoughts first. Finally, a small shaky voice emerged.

"You… you're not a grandma?"

'...What?'

"Pffhahaha, sweetheart, I don't know what you're talking about. But no, I'm not a grandma. No kids, let alone grandkids. I'm a little young for that still."

The strange question had taken her so off guard that she was still struggling not to laugh.

'What on earth is up with this girl? I kind of just want to tease her, but no, now probably isn't the time.'

"So? Other than confirming that I'm not a grandmother, I'm assuming you have more on your mind?"

She nodded. Yes, she had a lot of questions. So many in fact that she didn't know where to start. Taking a deep breath, she tried to gather her thoughts.

"Why did you do that? Any of it. Why did you help me and why did you go so far? It's not like we know each other and all you'll get is trouble for what just happened."

She trailed off, clearly sounding guilty and she lowered her head in shame as she spoke. Valentina smiled gently at her as she hooked a finger under her chin and forced her to look up.

"I don't know if you'd fully understand my reasoning. Just know that what I did wasn't out of some sense of justice but based on fulfilling my own wishes."

Dahlia looked confused at that and the vampiress just wanted to eat her up then and there. That confused expression she made was too cute! Holding herself back from jumping on her, she tried to answer the rest of the question.

"What you need to understand is that I went as far as I did because I felt… passionate about what I was doing. I don't like being half assed with things I care about. If anything, educating a noble and his spoiled child is more of a pleasure for me than any detractor. I had a blast back there."

She thought back to the moment and a wide grin split her face. She recalled each and every second. The sensations. Their emotions. It was wonderful. Nodding once again, she added.

"You don't need to be concerned in the slightest, I would repeat what I did in a heartbeat."

A little confused how she made light of such an important matter but deciding not to keep pursuing the topic, Dahlia gave a slow and thoughtful nod before looking back at the archduchess in front of her.

She was stunning. Literally so for Dahlia, who seemed to freeze in place every time she looked at the woman too closely. Nevertheless, her eyes were drawn back time and time again. She was tall, probably about six and a half feet tall and her body was svelte and lithe. Even with the tailored suit she wore, Dahlia could tell she was toned underneath. She didn't have much in the way of curves, but who cares? Looking at her body alone, Dahlia's mouth had started to water.

Shifting her gaze, she tried to redirect her focus to something that didn't make her brain shut down. She had long straight black hair to her waist, pale alabaster skin, deep red lips and her eyes… It happened every time. The moment she locked eyes with her, it was like she couldn't look away. No, it wasn't that she couldn't but that she would rather have anything else happen than have to look away. She found those crimson and silver eyes more addicting than a drug.

Valentina was enjoying the attention. Dahlia looked like she was about to ask more questions, but then suddenly stopped as she blatantly stared at her.

'Does she not realise what she's doing? It's honestly hilarious but I think she needs to calm down. And as if her actions weren't enough, I'm literally going light headed from the scent she's giving off. I need her to stop before I lose control.'

"Ahem. I think you were going to keep asking something?"

Hearing her clear her throat, Dahlia flinched.

'Crap, what was I just doing? Uhhh. Oh no. I think I was just doing what all those others were doing to me.'

Shaking her head and trying to not cringe at herself and ignore her own abnormal behaviour, she tried to get back on track.

"Right, so, you said I wouldn't understand what your reasons were, but that doesn't change things. You don't need to explain, but I do want to know your aim. Why did you help me? Was it an excuse to attack the Duke, or are you aiming at me for my family or aspect or something?"

Dahlia had simply decided not to hide her aspect from her considering that with the authority she had, she could easily get the information. Valentina however, raised an eyebrow at that. She truly wouldn't be troubled even if Dahlia had no magic at all, but hearing that the girl thought that it could be the cause for her being singled out… well, it was an intriguing turn of events.

"Hmm, well it wasn't for any of the reasons you listed, though yeah, I did have a grudge on the Duke. Also, now that you've mentioned it, I am curious to know more about your aspect, but I don't think now is the time. To be completely honest, what I wanted to achieve from this whole debacle is you."

Dahlia froze in place as she let that sink in. She tried to think of different ways she could mean that. Was it as a servant? Or a slave? Maybe a whore, or as a test subject for some scary vampire magic. Seeing her get trapped in never ending thoughts, Valentina sighed. She was slightly distressed by how easily this girl's thoughts went off on tangents. After enough time had passed, she broke the silence.

"To be clear, what I mean is as a partner. Something close to equals even. I…"

She wondered how much she should say. How honest she should be. She settled on a middleground.

"I've spent a lot of time chasing women. Some are cut from the same cloth, but many are unique and have their own charms, but I've interacted with almost all of the regional noblewomen and I have something of a… reputation. Even if the individual is unique, the relationships tend to be roughly the same."

She sighed a bit. This felt awkward. She wasn't ashamed of her previous actions. Not in the slightest. She lived in order to never have regrets and that wasn't starting now. But telling a prospective partner 'you're not like the others, you're special,' even if true, innately felt disingenuous.

"Look, you may not believe me, but between you seeming to be isolated and ignorant of high society, while also having plenty of charms and beauty. Frankly, you drew me in immediately and seeing that, I don't want to let you go and run off with some douchebag of a noble."

Of her many flaws and strengths, one thing Valentina had was being straightforward. She certainly could lie and scheme with the best of them, but for relationships, be it romantic or otherwise, she always much preferred being candid. It could easily be off putting, but that was a sacrifice she'd make for clear communication.

Looking up, she could see Dahlia thinking to herself. This girl really liked to get lost in her own thoughts. Finally though, she had done a couple nods to herself before looking up with a slightly sly grin.

"I'm going to tell you something. Due to certain… circumstances, I came here with the full intention of meeting you. I had no information on you other than your name and your house's history. I thought you might be an old grandma or something considering you were the Lukresh matriarch."

She gave a chuckle and shook her head.

"Clearly, you aren't as I expected. I was originally going to see if I could be adopted into the family by a doting grandma but… this is an alternative I wasn't expecting but I think maybe, just maybe, this could work. You need to recognize that I have ulterior motives going into this, but so long as that's fine with you, I think I'll be happy to take you up on your offer."

Valentina was shocked by the whole thing. First of all, there were some important questions. How could she possibly know nothing about her? Did this girl grow up in a cave? Why exactly did she arrive with the intent of getting adopted? These were important questions, but for the moment Valentina couldn't care less about them. Instead, she was just filled with elation.

'Is this actually happening? I've been with so many women I've lost count, but now that the relationship is structured a little differently I can't even keep myself calm. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me, I think I'm too invested already.'

One half of her wanted to calm down and sort her emotions out so they would cause problems, the other half of her wanted to act on those emotions immediately. The later half won.

A glint of desire could be seen in her eyes as she reached out and gently brought Dahlia closer to her. The arm that had pulled her remained around her waist as her other hand reached up and gently caressed her face. Looking at the girl in front of her, it was taking every ounce of willpower to stop there.

Maintaining eye contact with the now blushing Dahlia, she spoke softly, but there was a slightly primal and possessive growl in her throat.

"Whatever reason you had to escape, you don't need to worry. So long as you're mine, I'll make sure you're safe."