A Visit

Alardis was never warm. Yet his eyes were red like two orbs displaying the gateway to hell, unfeeling while getting pleasure from pain. With him was the icy air of death, dragging and on edge.

"Do I even have to act surprised?"

She should not have taken her travels lightly. Next to hers, Alardis' clan remained influential- having followers from both purebloods and lesser vampires. Sending them after her was an easy task.

"Rocco saw you fooling around," he started, his voice was deep and emphasizing his irritation. Rocco? Evelina remembered a skinny man begging for another life. She remembered a corpse turning into something she was. Undead. "Do not worry about him, though. His tongue had already been severed as the others thirsted for his blood. Now, he cannot blurt to anyone the progress you have made during your time here."

Oh.

"But if I may ask, what kind of progress is there?"

A question that she had been asking herself, too. A question of which no proper answer can be said. Evelina found herself in a difficult position.

Her silence did not go unnoticed by the vampire. He growled, moving forward to corner her, his large hand around her neck. Evelina fought for her breath, but before she could push him away, he easily lifted her up and slammed her to the wall. " Wake up, Damyon! Wake up! We did not support your clan just to laugh at your failure."

She knew that, of course.

The council's vote was cut in half between the two clans, Rassier and Damyon. She did not know how her mother got the other half to vote for their family, but she suspects that it had something to do with the balls she was forced to attend. In the end, Rassier gave their vote to Damyon- letting the vampiress' clan have the chance to take leadership.

"I am not-" she gasped within his grasp, her shoulders to her back aching at the impact. "I have not yet reached the point of failure."

"Then prove it," Alardis hissed, finally letting go of her. Evelina coughed while caressing her neck, the ghost of his hand still haunting her. "Let me remind you why my vote favoured you-"

She was not blinded. She knew that it was never for her but for him.

Lionel.

"Do you think that I have not been thinking of that?" Evelina lifted her head, giving him a mournful smile. "I am aware of whom I lay my responsibilities for. My clan… and your brother."

Not to him, nor his clan.

Nor herself.

"Then what have you been doing with your days? You sure are taking your time diddling with humans."

"I am planning, Alardis!" she stood up, glaring at him. "I am taking my time to learn my surroundings, to know how I can target my victim. Of course, you would not understand because you lack patience, do you not?"

Evelina walked towards him until she was meeting him eye to eye. "You also have a knack of scaring away your underlings, stomping your foot over them. Shall I remind you that I am not one of them?"

He might be intimidating, but she was not afraid of him. She had seen his ways, learned from it since she saw the advantage of it- but she would never be scared of him. She had dealt with purebloods all her years.

Alardis returned her look, intensity topping another. Finally, he turned and gazed out her window, Evelina following him.

"You are already in front of your goal. Why wait?"

There was little of the palace walls seen outside of her window, but it was still there. Seen. The light of the moon reflected on its towers, giving it a glow- making sure its beholding lavishness was shared for all of the capital to look up to, despite the tallness of most townhouses and shops.

"Because…"

She had imagined it. Infiltrating the palace, seduction as her weapon. But she knew that it would not work. Not when she was not yet ready for a war. Not when she still had no desire to lead.

Hunger would drive her, but she would not look at the future to see her kind completely gone just because of one mistake. Just because she was chosen to carry a big responsibility.

"You have been silent for long, Evelina." The vampiress said nothing. " Do you know that what you are doing right now was also what Beatrice did? She planned for ten years only to disappear from her duty. She was the one who started the war. Do you want to let yourself be like her and disappoint your clan? Since you have finally got the chance to prove yourself, do you not think that you should get it?"

Evelina breathed heavily, still staring at the night sky. "I will not be like her."

"Then let us go right now. To the palace. You have the advantage to just barge in there. The law of consent does not apply itself to you."

But she had used her advantage countless times now, and none of it had a pretty result. She even felt like straying away from her kind. It was unfair for her. To use such humane skills when she was doing her duty as a vampiress.

"But the law of consent still follows you. How did you get inside, then?"

Alardis smirked.

Ah.

Could it be that the innkeeper was seduced? Her children were not witches so it would make sense that he could easily tempt her. But Evelina did assume that tying lives with witches should, at least, give the old lady protection from vampires like Alardis.

"Have you not been using yours to humans here?" he asked. When he received no answer, the vampire let out a snarl. "Are you paying your stay here, too? Such good citizen you are, Damyon. Are you really not fooling around?"

Exasperated, Evelina turned to him. "I told you that I am not!"

By the time she shouted, both vampires heard footsteps from the stairs, walking towards the direction of the room.

Alardis red eyes gleamed, growling at her and readying himself for the intruder. "Then what have you been doing here? How do I know that you are not going to run? How do I know that you are not liking the way you live here when all points there?"

"What points exactly? Because I have told you nothing. All you have heard are from your spy who seemed to not know what he was doing!"

"Then say what it is you truly want?"

She cannot. Her mind had been exhausted for just one night.

"Can you not just believe in me, Alardis?"

"And watch another failure? You know who you are, Evelina."

A failure, that was what he thought of her. She had been nothing but.

"Eve-elina?" There was a call outside her door. The intruder.

Alardis hissed at the voice, his fangs ready to devour the witch from the other side. He glanced at Evelina, her heart racing. She tried to remain a calm exterior, but…

West really had a talent at arriving at terrible times, did he not? Now, how would she explain to Alardis how the person outside knew her name?

"Evelina," he knocked on the door. And as the knocks grew louder, Alardis became less and less thrilled.

"I could prove you wrong," she said carefully, trying to get the vampire's attention to herself again. "I have joined hands with witches."

"What?"

He was bewildered, but it only threw Evelina more hope. She knew that it was something that he had not expected. "I have tamed them. Or still trying to. But they will join me on my duty. That's what I had been up to."

The vampire was speechless. Both races had been at each other's throats for such a long time. Surely it was impressive of Evelina to say that witches would go to lengths, bowing to her kind… right?

"Evelina!"

"Then your plan is..?"

"To have allies," she sighed, as if finally revealing a secret she had been keeping to herself. Yeah, right. Those witches are far from being her allies right now. "Besides, your brother would not like me rushing it, too. I would do it as you are suggesting if Lionel had not taught me to wait. But he did. And just like you, I am doing this for his-"

"Evelina!" The door opened.

"-honour," she finished, confused.

West stared at the two, his eyes wide. Behind him was Royce, holding a ring of keys.

"Er… we heard screaming," said the boy awkwardly.