16 2030-08-04: The wind is starting to encircle him.

Luckily, all those things remain on his mind, and he answers Lionel frankly, "My sister didn't know the entire situation and she's ordered to reflect on her mistake."

"Was it a mistake to report something like that? She didn't do anything wrong," Lionel interrupts him again, and Steve understands his meaning despite the only mistake in what her sister did was being a blabbermouth.

He could only nod in agreement and begins clarifying things, "The Empress needed something-"

"What could Milla possibly need from you?" After hearing the threatening voice, his eyes are suddenly being forced to look at Lionel's direction especially to the knife that he's playing on his hand.

"The-" Steve's hand reaches for his throat because he finds it hard to speak out of nowhere like someone is fastening it. Then he notices the slightly evil smile of Lionel so he turns to Josh for help. That's when he sees him lift up his hand with his palm facing the prince and closes his eyes. 

After what Josh did, the prince can feel his throat feel loose then tight again. This keeps on going so he doesn't stop shouting words until it's audible, "Th... Sh... L... la... Lap... Top-"

"What did you just say?" An even more sinister voice comes from Lionel until Steve's heart literally starts hurting. He grabs the table and holds on to it tightly- his face starting to turn pale like his life force is gradually getting taken out from him.

Meanwhile, Josh has his two hands up and the wind around him is starting to encircle him. Lionel senses this and mutters something before letting Steve live, "Foolish."

The air becomes stable around Josh as his eyes turn back to normal from being gray like his irises are translucent. While the vampire prince practically lies forward to the table as he tries to make sense of what happened. Realizing the meaning behind Lionel's smile earlier, he hurriedly forms words out of his mouth, "Laptop… The Empress… needed haaa… my laptop. She typed 'Confirmed'- with her eyes closed then left."

Confused, Lionel doesn't say anything and this is enough time for Steve to regain his sanity or it looks like he's been revived. He can't complain because he honestly doesn't know what transpired earlier. He comes up with the decision to completely save himself by telling everything, "Before today, the Empress also secretly ordered me to tell Dionne- an elite vampire guard about her unaccompanied travels soon. I still don't know why if these are related."

"Ah, yes, I remember the Shadow reporting this to me. About the Empress' plan of traveling alone- that elite guard reported it to their captain. He didn't do anything out of the ordinary but their captain… seems suspicious." Josh reminds him but Lionel is starting to fit the pieces together. All he needs to do is to drive this prince away, "You may go now, the helicopter is about to arrive."

Josh escorts the vampire prince to the helicopter and warns him midway, "Lionel will appreciate it if you keep quiet of what transpired tonight."

Steve now looks at him differently and in a more superior way for he doesn't expect him to be that powerful. So he nods his head actively and does a zipping gesture in front of his mouth, "Definitely! You can count on me, my lips are shut."

When Josh comes back to the dining area, Lionel is still there eating, 'I believe the Empress and him could get along when it comes to food and it might be the only exception for the both of them…'

Without looking at his direction, Lionel starts to ask him like he's lecturing him, "Did you have to get yourself involved in how I deal with him? You know I'm more powerful than you, yet you foolishly tried to obstruct my powers?" 

"If I didn't try to stop you, you might have killed him. What would the Empress feel about-"

Before Josh can finish his attempt to put some sense into his friend's mind, Lionel stops him with an annoyed but slightly mischievous voice, "Enough, you're not my mother. Go eat or go to your room, I'm not done eating yet."

'Doesn't that sound more like a mother?' Clearly, he can only tease him in his mind but he doesn't know why Lionel suddenly invites him to eat as well. It might be awkward to eat on the same table so he declares instead, "I'll excuse myself first, I have to check on something. Please enjoy your meal."

Upon reaching his room, Josh contacts a Shadow, "Did you give it to the Empress? What did she say?"

...

What really happened… 

This Shadow learns about Steve giving a playlist in an iPod and a headset to the Empress- including Milla asking for a new headset or rather heard the conversation between her and the vampire king. So he reports it to Josh who, in turn, orders him to personally buy a costly headset and a new iPod then fill it with different playlists for her to choose from. This way, it will be much faster than ordering online and waiting for it to arrive.

Yes, there are vampires employed in the delivery sections but Josh wants to make sure that no disruptions will occur. He also intends to be ahead of Steve in fulfilling the Empress' wants, all for the sake of building Lionel's image to her mind. What a loyal friend- playing Cupid for him but he doesn't even notice that he's alone too.

The Shadow personally delivers the package to Milla so they are certain that she gets to receive it immediately. With his training under Josh's supervising, he stealthily arrives outside her room without any delays. Then he greets her in a hushed tone, "Empress-"

Before he can finish his words, the door opens and a hand grabs him by the neck- choking him. Upon realizing it's the Empress, he looks down and tries to withstand the pain. He doesn't fail to catch a glimpse of the dead look Milla is giving him, "What are you doing outside my chamber? Why are you here? Did Lionel send you?"

It's hard for him to talk clearly so he slowly lifts the box to show her. She retreats her hand but stays alert, "What's inside it? Open it and don't do anything that will cause your death."

He can't pinpoint which terrifies him the most, the Empress choking him or her letting his neck go. One thing he is sure of- she scares him exactly like what he feels whenever Lionel is around. So he directly answers her while opening the package, "It's a headset and an iPod, Empress."

Crossing her arms, Milla leans her right side on the door jamb and smirks, "Tell me, it's probably Josh who ordered you to give me this, right?"

He becomes stiff for a few seconds before he's able to respond to her, "It was-"

"You may go. I'll take that and thank Josh for me." Milla grabs the box and closes the door, not giving him any chance to save himself from the expected doom he will have to face.

The slamming of the door makes the oblivious elite vampire guard outside the vampire princess' bedroom finally take notice of the intruder. He initially plans to confront him but recognizes him to be one of the Shadows. So he returns to his previous position and stops looking at the Shadow's direction.

A few minutes later, Ben, the elite vampire guard, pretends to yawn so he can glance to where the Shadow is. To his surprise, there's nobody there and it only means one thing- he didn't feel his approaching presence even once. This is all happening while Steve is at Prospect Creek, Alaska, and on his way back home.

…

After hearing the Shadow tell him everything, Josh feels burdened and troubled. He just wants to help Lionel who isn't doing anything to win Milla's heart. Still, the Empress finds out that it's not from him then thanks him instead. Will he tell these things to the Vampire Emperor or…?

He doesn't want to die yet and he pities the Shadow more, who's only following his orders. He thereupon comes up with a decision after weighing all the possible options, 'The Empress seems to be the more reasonable one between those two, so I'll try to convince her first that it's really from Lionel and I already have a plan in mind. It won't be impossible to make that happen, right…?' Or so he thinks.