Victoria was about to grab the man’s arm and twist it before she heard a familiar voice. A voice she’d never forget after last night. A hypnotic voice. She turned to see a man approach her and pretend to know her. Obviously, he had stepped in to come to her rescue. She then noticed his eyes were those same green eyes she stared into whilst dancing with him the eve before. Those entrancing eyes. She blinked as he scared the drunkard man off her. She looked him up and down, same figure and the way he held himself. A masquerade mask couldn’t hide his hair cut he wore either. It was definitely Vail Hygrace.

He then had the audacity to tell her it was dangerous to be out here at this time of night and told her to consider going home before she got herself hurt. He didn’t know her, what she was capable of. He was certainly judgemental about the Lady. It was also condescending. He was no better than the other men who looked down upon women. Sure, she had a dagger she didn’t really know how to use properly but she wasn’t afraid of using it. He then turned to leave. He would hear the scraping of the bar stool as she pushed herself away from the counter and slid off. “I didn’t know you cared so much about what happened to me….Vail Hygrace. That’s right. I recognise you.” How could she not forget this handsome man she felt so intoxicated around. She struggled to think clearly but she was still angry.

She stood tall and firm behind him and folded her arms. “Who the HELL do you think you are, telling me what I should and should not do? You’re no better than a Wynter…you don’t know me so do not presume to!” She scolded him. She showed that she obviously knew of the two clan’s rivalry and so she knew it would get his back up. But he had annoyed her and so she responded in kind. It was her turn to leave him with her piece of her mind as she walked past him and gave him a cold glance and made a small ‘hmph’ at him as if to say she was going to disregard him. It was obvious Gerald wasn’t here, so on to the next tavern she would go. She practically smacked the tavern door open as she walked through it. It slammed against the wall outside and bounced back to slam shut again.

She felt the cold night air and exhaled, seeing a cloud of white steam escape her ruby lips. She huddled inside her cloak and looked up and down the street with a sigh. She headed not for the direction of her estate but toward a tavern she could barely make out down the street with its glowing lantern swinging in the wind.

As Vail took a step toward the door of the tavern, he was surprised to hear the loud and jarring grate of a barstool on the wooden floor behind him. He glanced back over his shoulder to see that the Lady Victoria had risen from her seat and was now glaring at him coldly. The venom in her expression caught him off guard. He had expected her to be thankful for his help, since he had gone out of his way to brush off the stranger who had been eyeing her so lustfully. Instead, she almost seemed offended by the gesture.

He groaned inwardly. Why couldn’t he have just left the situation alone? It didn’t matter to him one way or another what the Lady did or what became of her. Looking back on it, he knew he should have walked away; made some excuse to lure the man he’d been targeting earlier into an alleyway and gone home without causing more trouble for himself. Instead, he had to go and play hero to a maiden in distress—or so it had appeared to him at the time—for only God knew what reason. To make matters even worse, it looked like Victoria was about to cause a scene.

In the next moment, she proved his theory correct by chiding him loudly in front of the other patrons. However, when she addressed him, he tensed. Apparently, sometime between their last encounter and the current moment, she had learned his real name. He cursed under his breath, his eyes flitting discreetly over the crowd. The Saints in the Order were everywhere, and she had just announced, quite loudly in fact, that there was a vampire in their midst. If any of the hunters were among them, he didn’t have long to get out.

As Victoria went on to reprimand him for telling her what to do—it seemed she had mistaken his earlier words of advice for an order—he slowly edged back from her, intent on leaving the Black Bull before the Saints could have a chance to catch him. He no longer paid attention to what she was saying. Now that his cover was blown, he didn’t have time to think about it. All he cared about was escaping from the crowded room without taking a knife to the back.

When the Lady stormed past him to get out of the tavern, herself, Vail rolled his eyes. Even though she had completely misunderstood his intentions, he didn’t care what she thought. The situation had been resolved, so he was going to move forward with his original plan and find a new target to feed on. With that thought in mind, he made his way quickly through the small sea of men, slipping out the door and heading for another tavern before anyone else could approach him.

As he walked, he frequently glanced over his shoulder to see if he was being followed, but as far as he could tell, no one had come after him. He relaxed slightly. It seemed he had gotten lucky and there hadn’t been any hunters in the Black Bull after all—at least, none who knew his family name. He turned back to the building he was walking toward now, a tavern called the Open Leaf where he had hunted in the past. Gazing through the windows, he was pleased to see that there were a few women interspersed amongst the men inside.

He traced his tongue hungrily across his lips as he stepped into the building, eager to finish what he had started before he drew any more attention to himself that night.

I like the way you move in the dark…

The Lady heard the door of the Black Bull open and close as she was about one hundred yards away. She quickly slipped into an alleyway and hid behind a dumpster to see whom it was that walked past. It was Vail. Luckily the smell of garbage would mask her scent from the vampire. She decided to watch where he was going. Funny he showed up at the tavern the same night she was searching for the Order. He ventured into the next tavern over, she peeked her head from out of the alleyway. She wondered why he went in there. Vampires didn’t drink alcohol.

“Must be hunting…” She said to herself as she ran upto the tavern, crouched and looked through the window. A shadowy figure across the road was watching the Lady hidden from view. She heard a metallic clink on the floor, and she turned around. She saw nothing but narrowed her eyes. After a few moments she got up and entered the tavern quietly.

The Open Leaf tavern. A somewhat classier town pub than the Black Bull. She slipped in and there was a string quartet playing in the corner. Victoria smiled at the pleasant music and walked straight to the bar to ask the barkeep the same question as the previous tavern. She tried not to look for Vail but her eyes kept darting the area for him anyway. She didn’t want to admit it, but she couldn’t keep him out her mind. He did help her back at the Bull, though she berated him in public and outed him to the Order. She felt bad then contemplating it over. As the bar keep approached her, she caught his eye. “What can I get My Lady?”

“Information please.” She asked him as he looked at her pensively. “I’m looking for Gerald Alabaster.”

“Never heard of the fellow, sorry.” The barman replied as Victoria frowned. She was never going to find her father’s friend at this rate. She just wanted to know the truth. She needed to find her father’s murderer. She sighed and looked disheartened at the counter.

“Can I get you anything else?” He asked as she shook her head sadly. “No thanks…” She turned around and spotted Vail eyeing up his victim. One of the ladies by the fireplace. She smirked and crept over and came up behind him. She put her lips to his ear. “Hunting, are we?” She whispered to the vampire and stepped back before he could turn around and grab her or do anything stupid.

Inside the Open Leaf, Vail let his eyes rove over the patrons as he decided whom he was going to make his target that night. Though he considered most of the people in the room, his focus mostly lingered on the group of women he had spotted from outside. There were three of them in all, sitting near the back of the room beside a large, glowing fireplace. Each one had in drink in her hand, and there was a flush to their cheeks that told him they had to have been drinking at least long enough to feel the effects of the gin. Thanks to their inebriation, any one of them would have a perfect victim.

He edged closer to the group, mixing easily with the crowd as he elected to choose his prey by scent rather than by sight. Over the years, he had gotten quite skilled at hunting without alerting his target to his presence. Even now, he let his gaze wander aimlessly over the room, acting as if he was merely enjoying the atmosphere of the pub rather than hunting down his next meal. None of the women seemed to take any notice of him either. They were all distracted by whatever conversation they were having to notice the predator in their midst.

Once he was close enough to distinguish their individual smells, Vail’s eyes flicked toward the woman sitting on the right, a young brunette with golden-brown eyes and a pretty face. Among the three, her aroma was the most delicious, and he was sure her blood would taste sweet—just what he needed to satisfy his craving. He was just about to begin planning how he would separate her from the rest of her friends when another scent wafted to him that made him stop in his tracks.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” he muttered under his breath, glancing over the room until he spotted Victoria speaking with the bar keep over the counter. She didn’t seem to have noticed him yet, but he doubted it was a coincidence that she was here now. He clicked his tongue and turned away from her again. Having learned his lesson from his last mistake, he wasn’t going to approach her this time. Perhaps, if he was lucky, she wouldn’t see him, and he wouldn’t have to interact with her again.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t make it that easy on him.

The strength of her perfume grew just before Vail felt her whispery voice on his ear. Her warm breath made his skin tingle, but his annoyance with the scene she had caused in the Black Bull outweighed the pleasantness of the sensation. “Following me now, are you?” he asked dryly as he continued to watch the woman whom he had made his target. He didn’t want to risk letting his prey slip away for just a conversation with the Crest heiress. “I would have thought you’d be satisfied after giving me away once tonight. Or are you trying to do some noble deed by stopping me wherever I go?”

Victoria chuckled at the fact he thought she was following him. If anything, she thought he was following her, knowing she had cut herself at the party and Vail seemed to linger around her. She knew he would enjoy her blood more than anyone’s. Yet, the way he was staring at his target, actually made her feel inadequate. Like she wasn’t special anymore. Or perhaps it was because she wanted his attention to be on her like it was when they danced.

“Me? Following you? Don’t flatter yourself, My Lord…” She folded her arms. “I really don’t care what you’re up to. I have better things to do with my time….” She knew the Hygraces would not mess with her or her family from reading her father’s notes, they wanted to keep a low profile. She went to turn away but then stopped in her tracks. It was true she didn’t care what he did or who he killed, she knew none of these people in here and really disliked the majority of social conventions, the fake people, their two-faced attitudes, the gossip. Pubs were rife with it. But she couldn’t help feeling a pang of pity for his victim. It was still someone’s daughter, wife mayhap or even mother even at her young age.

Victoria Crest was in no way trained or ready to even take on any vampires, even just the one such as Vail. She stared at the door, she still had a caring soul and knew it would enrage the vampire to possibly attack her, but at least she had a dagger to defend herself with. That young lady had no clue what she was up against. She decided to try and distract him from his target. Victoria turned back to face Vail, though he still wasn’t looking at her. “Um…thanks for helping me earlier with that crude man…maybe…I can reward you...with just a small taste…” She then wavered her cut finger under his nose. Was she the prey or the hunter now? Her intention to lure him out into the street. But this way the other woman would be safe for tonight. She only had to worry about her own safety right now as she walked to the door and left the tavern. She hoped his desire was strong enough to want her blood much more than the average human.

She broke into a run in the street, she really doubted she could outrun a vampire, but she could maybe outwit one. She ran toward the alley way she hid in and suddenly a shadowy figure stepped out from it. Victoria couldn’t slow down quickly enough and ended up running into his arms. “Agh!” She screeched as the man grabbed her arms and pulled her tightly to him. He nearly crushed her in his embrace as she squirmed and kicked. “Let me go!”

“Calm down Miss! You’re safe now!” He told her in a gruff voice. “GET. OFF!” She kneed him in the groin, he let her go and groaned as he curled over himself in pain. She then ran from him and he began to chase her down. “Come back here!” Albeit he was hobbling at first.

As Victoria rebutted that she hadn’t been following him, Vail casted her a brief glance before focusing on the woman he had targeted again. As long as she wasn’t shouting to everyone in London that he was a Hygrace, he didn’t care what she was doing either. Perhaps it really had just been a coincidence that they had found each other at two different pubs. Whatever the case, he wasn’t going to let her appearance distract him from his goal. She was untouchable. The other Lady was not. If he didn’t feed tonight, his cravings would only grow worse too. For his own sake, he had to satisfy them so he wouldn’t have to leave his family’s manor again.

For a moment, it nearly seemed like Victoria was going to leave him alone. As she turned to walk away from him, he was able to put all his attention into luring the dark-haired woman away from the tavern. Since she was drunk, it wouldn’t be difficult. All he had to do was make an excuse to interrupt the group’s conversation and remain close to her long enough that she would go with him willingly when he invited her to accompany him outside. He was just about to make his move when Victoria spoke up again.

This time, she caught his attention.

Vail turned toward the Lady when she offered him “a small taste,” eyeing her with new interest. Despite everything he had told himself before, he couldn’t deny that he was tempted. He wondered why she would make such a sudden gesture though. She obviously knew who and what he was. Why wasn’t she afraid? His feral gaze swept over her. As Alexander’s daughter, she surely must have been fed the lies of the Order: that vampires were demons who bled their victims to death in a cruel and sadistic manner. It surprised him that she was facing him so calmly as she made her proposal.

However, he didn’t get a chance to question her before she reached out to wave her fresh cut beneath his nose. The alluring fragrance of her unique blood made his heartbeat quicken and his pupils dilate with envy. Already hungry and sensitive to his carnal instincts, it was simply too much for him to withstand this time. All sense went out the window as she hurried out the door, further exciting his inner predator with the prospect of a chase. What did it matter if she was a Crest? She had volunteered to be his prey tonight, and he had every intention to accept.

Without giving it another thought, Vail took off after her, walking briskly through the pub until he reached the street. As soon as the Lady was back in his sight, he broke into a sprint, easily closing a large portion of the distance between them as he pursued her. In the back of his head, he knew he should be more careful about chasing her so obviously—if a member of the Order saw him now, it would be clear what he was doing—but at the moment, the impulse to feed was too consuming to listen to reason. He hastened his pace.

At one point, he noticed absently that he passed someone else on the street when he rounded a corner to follow Victoria into an alley. However, he didn’t pay the man any mind. His target was right in front of him now. He almost had her.

As soon as she was close enough for him to touch, Vail caught her by the arm and pulled her roughly against himself. His usual gentleness had fled, replaced with a frenzied urge to have his fill of her rich blood. He pinned her effortlessly and curled his lip, baring a sinister set of fangs just before he leaned in to bite the soft skin of her neck.

Victoria knew it was only a matter of time before he caught up to her. She reached down for her dagger as she ran but she felt something latch onto her arm and pull her back. Her back slammed against Vail’s torso, she felt her heart burst out of her chest. She was scared but she was also excited. Never in her life had she experienced such invigoration. Living a sheltered life, she had never really lived. She felt alive right now. Even though he was rough with her, being in Vail’s arms sent a shockwave of desire throughout her body. She must have been insane. She could feel his breath near her neck, she lifted her leg so she could grab her dagger from it but as she unsheathed it from her boot, a gun went off. “Unhand her, you unholy beast!”

A silver bullet impaled Vail’s shoulder. “The next one wont miss!” The stranger growled as he aimed his gun at him. Feeling Vail’s grip loosen on her, Victoria brought her silver, holy tipped blade up and slid out of his arms. She dropped to the floor and slashed his right leg. She pushed herself off the floor and sprang into a run toward the stranger.

“You’re okay now Miss, I’m with the Order of Saints. Get behind me.” He instructed as his gun remained targeting Vail. She did run behind him but turned and saw he was about to shoot Vail in the heart. It would kill him. She didn’t want him to die. He couldn’t help himself in his frenzied state. It was his natural instinct to prey upon her. He couldn’t control it any more than a hungry lioness hunting zebra. From what she had read of her father’s journals. Not all vampires were blood thirsty beasts. Some felt ashamed of being what they were, others went into hiding to survive, like Vail.

“No! Don’t kill him!” Victoria pushed the stranger’s arm upward and his gun shot a bullet into the air. He growled. “Vampire sympathiser!” He yelled at her and struck her down with his gun with the handle against her cheek. She yelped and fell to the floor, holding her face. “Run Vail!” She shouted out for him to use this opportunity to flee the Order.

Just as Vail was about to sink his teeth into Victoria’s neck, he felt a sharp wave of pain explode outward from his shoulder. He sucked in his breath, losing his grip on his victim as the shock of the impact snapped him out of his frenzy. A new instinct to flee reared up inside him, replacing his predatory urge as he became aware of the danger he was in. One of the Saints had found him, and judging by the burning sensation in his wounded shoulder, the hunter was shooting to kill.

Before he had a chance to react to the situation, his face contorted into a snarl as he felt another stinging pain in his leg. In his distraction, it seemed Victoria had taken the opportunity to attack him as well. He recoiled from her, suddenly realizing he had stepped into a trap. She must have lured him away from the tavern intentionally, and he had fallen for it without a second thought. He cursed himself silently. How foolish he had been to trust her. He should have known that a member of the Crest family would never have volunteered to let him feed on her without an ulterior motive. Instead, he had been too blinded by his desire to taste her blood to realize what he was walking into.

The wound in his shoulder smarted abruptly, and Vail winced, lifting his hand to press down on the open bullet hole. Outnumbered two to one and injured twice to boot, he knew he needed to get away, but the odds of outrunning a gun were slim. All the Saint had to do was pull the trigger and he was done for. Feeling cornered, he backed away from the hunter with his fangs still bared and his heart pounding in his chest. It was too late for him to save himself, but he could at least demonstrate that he wasn’t going down without a fight.

However, before the man had a chance to finish him off, Vail was surprised to hear Victoria cry out and shove his arm aside. He wavered, suddenly unsure what was going on. After she’d slashed his leg with her dagger, he’d thought she and the Saint were on the same side. Why didn’t she let the man kill him? He didn’t have time to ponder over it as she screamed at him to run.

Realizing she had given him the opportunity he needed, he spun on his heel and sprinted away from them both without looking back. It was hard for him to keep up his pace with the wounds he’d sustained, but he managed not to slow down until he’d turned enough corners that he felt certain he’d lost them.

Panting lightly from the adrenaline during his escape, Vail took a moment to inspect his injuries while he walked the rest of the way back to the Hygrace manor. The laceration from Victoria’s dagger wasn’t very deep, luckily. Though it stung, he was sure he would be able to tend to it properly on his own.

The bullet hole in his shoulder was another story though.

He disliked the idea of letting either of his parents know what had happened to him, since they were both paranoid enough as it was. Ever since the Wynters had attacked their family, Lord Peter and Lady Katherine seemed to think there was danger around every corner. Unfortunately, the silver bullet was still lodged in his flesh, and he was going to need someone else’s help to get it out. His mother and father were the only ones with the medicinal experience needed to do the job.

Vail sighed, his breath leaving him in a wisp of a cloud. He could already tell it was going to be a long night.

--

When he eventually made it back to the manor, Vail made a point to slip through the front door as quietly as he could. There were always vampires from other families seeking asylum with the Hygraces, and he didn’t want to cause them any panic by showing up in bloodstained clothing. Most of them were terrified enough of the Order, and he had no intention of frightening them more than they already were.

Painstakingly, he made his way up the stairs that led to the wing where his relatives lived and knocked on the door to his parents’ bedchamber. After a pause, he heard a muffled noise on the inside of the wooden panel, and his father appeared on the other side. Peter knitted his brow confusedly as his gaze landed on his son, “Vail? What do you need at this hour?”

In answer, the younger Hygrace removed his hand from his shoulder, revealing the bleeding wound underneath with a slight wince. “I need to get this treated.”

His father’s eyes widened at the sight. “You were shot?”

Vail shrugged his good shoulder, “I think the Order is getting better at doing its job. I didn’t get a single drop before that Saint fired his gun.”

“So you were shot and you haven’t fed yet?” Peter shook his head. “This isn’t good, Vail. Not good at all.”

“I know,” he frowned, growing impatient as his wound pained him again. “We can talk about it later. Right now, I’d like it if you would get this damn bullet out of me so I can get some sleep.”

“Right,” his father blinked, seeming to have forgotten about the more pressing issue for a moment. He took a step back from the door, gesturing for the younger Hygrace to come inside. “I’ll take care of that for you now.”

“Thank you,” Vail said with some relief, following Peter into the bedchamber to get his injury treated.

Victoria looked up at the Saint sheepishly as he turned around and gazed down at her. She had lost him his prey. “Stupid girl!”He bent down and grabbed her by the collar and yanked her off the floor. He shoved her against the wall, to which she grunted. “Why did you let him escape?!”

Victoria glared at him. “He can’t help what he is! I teased him into chasing me. It was my fault he preyed on me.”

“Who does that?!” He shook his head at her in disbelief. He then spotted the holy dagger. “Are you a Saint?”

“No. But my father was. Alexander Crest.”She revealed to his shock. He immediately backed away. “Y-you ave to go, now! I-it’s not safe for you here.” He warned her as he ran off into the night.

“Wait!” She ran after him. “What do you know of my father?!”But he was soon gone into the shadows from whence he came. She cursed and panted as she stopped half way down the street. Whatever that Saint knew, he seemed panicked to learn who she really was. “Does everyone hate my family…?” She sighed as she pondered why most people couldn’t wait to get away from her.

She decided to call it a night and continue her search for Gerald the next evening. She walked home knowing that the lady back at the tavern lived to see another morning. She didn’t know how lucky she was.

---

Back at her mansion, Victoria checked in on her sleeping mother. Diana was sleeping strewn slanted across the bed, snoring loudly. Victoria smiled weakly knowing she was safe but she was living in grief and misery. The only thing keeping her going was organising her daughter’s wedding and seeing her wed to a wealthy man who would take care of her. She ventured back to her own room, draping her cloak over the dresser chair and sat on the bed. She fell back and stared at the ceiling. She knew Vail would be angry at her deception earlier, but it was never her intention to trap him and kill him. At least she stopped the Saint from killing him.

The next morning Victoria woke and dressed and spent the majority of the day in her father’s study, reading through even more journals. But there seemed to be one missing from the previous 6 months before his death. Which was curious. She didn’t know what to make of that. Perhaps when she found Gerald, he could shed some light on this. She decided to rummage around more of his items and belongings, fishing out a long ed tailcoat with gold buttons. She put it on and looked at herself in the mirror, inspecting it. It must have been his hunter uniform. It was slightly too big for her, but she felt more connected with him wearing this. She nodded with a smile. “I’m sure the tailor can adjust this for me.” She removed it and set it aside on the desk. She then found something very interesting. A crossbow. “Woooww!” She gasped and looked it over. It wasn’t rusty. All she needed were the bolts. “Time to go shopping!”

That afternoon Victoria hit the market. As she walked past some of the ladies, adorned in their finery and parasols, they whispered as the spotted her. “I hear Lady Diana is nothing but a drunk now.”

“She used to throw such elegant garden parties.”

“It’s a shame her daughter has lost her father and has to look after a drunken mother and run a household. I pity her.”

Their judgemental comments reached Victoria’s ears as she ran a finger over some fabrics at the tailor stall. She glanced over her shoulder to the three ladies., they immediately averted her gaze The same ladies that sat by the fire in the Open Leaf tavern last night. One of them Vail’s target. She sighed and carried on her business. “Could you please take this jacket in more at the sides for me? It’s too big.” She asked the tailor, whom took her father’s jacket from her and nodded. “I’ll just take your measurements in a moment.” Victoria nodded and waited, overheard the ladies again.

“You know…I do believe she is due to marry Lord Spencer next month.”

“Yes but I saw her in the tavern last evening and lured another man out who wasn’t even Spencer.” They gasped among themselves as they thought it was scandalous. Victoria began to feel agitated. After she had practically saved one of the girl’s lives. Karma had a very strange way of working if it did indeed exist.

“I mean…I’m not sure what Spencer sees in her, she’s not even that wealthy.”The cattiness continued as Victoria bit her lower lip. She tried so hard to keep quiet and ignore them. This is what she hated about society and didn’t get along well with other Ladies. She had already made a scene at the Black Bull that she was sure people were already talking about. She did not want to make a scene at the market the very next day. The tailor brought out a measuring rope and she lfited her arms so he could measure her bust and waist, her cloak revealing a purple dress beneath.

“Does she look…bigger to you?”

“Comfort eating perhaps?”

Lady Victoria gritted her teeth hard. It was like they wanted her to hear them talking about her behind her back. She wouldn’t consider them as even acquaintances let alone friends. She just hoped they’d go away soon and leave her alone.

“I’ll have it ready tomorrow, Miss.” The tailor told her and Victoria nodded. “Great thank you so much.” She turned around to leave the stall and the three ladies were still there staring at her across the market. “Oh, Lady Crest! I’m excited for your wedding to Lord Spencer, cannot wait to see your dress!” The girl who would have been Vail’s victim feigned a smile. Victoria feigned a smile back. “Too bad you won’t be able to see it.” Her way of saying she wasn’t invited. But really, if she could help it, there would be no wedding. She had a feeling Spencer could no be trusted. He outed a Hygrace to a Crest. She believed that was intentional. But if Spencer thought she would hate Vail and try to blame him for her father’s death, he was wrong. It would be illogical if a Hygrace had killed a Crest. Victoria took her leave from the market and headed for home.

The process of removing any piece of silver from one’s body was never a pleasant thing. Vail ground his teeth as his father fished the bullet out of his shoulder while his mother looked on with a worried expression. He was grateful that Peter was as skilled as he was when it came to dealing with such serious injuries, otherwise the procedure might have been even more painful. As it was, the elder Hygrace was efficient in his work and dislodged the silver in no time at all before moving on to treat the now freely bleeding wound.

Vail endured the sterilization without complaint. Even though it was arduous, he knew any leftover bits of the metal would just poison him slowly over time. If he was to recover properly, the injury needed to be fully cleansed of silver.

“There.” He was relieved to hear Peter’s confident voice announce that the worst was over. His father used a rag to mop up the blood that had trailed down his chest and arm during the process. “That should be all of it. Let me know if you start to feel ill though, just in case I missed anything.”

“I will,” Vail assured him, taking his father’s hand to sit up from where he had been laying on the bed.

“I’m just glad you got away before that Saint killed you,” his mother shook her head while her husband went on to bandage his shoulder. “If you didn’t come home last night, I don’t know what I would do.”

“The Order shouldn’t even be targeting our family in the first place,” Peter muttered with an edge of bitterness. “We stopped killing humans centuries ago. They know that, and yet they continue to treat us like we’re just as much of a threat as someone from any other clan. It’s absurd.”

Vail just shrugged his good shoulder in response. In truth, he was just as frustrated with the situation as Peter and Katherine were. The Hygraces went out of their way to compromise with the Order, even foregoing full meals by letting their victims live rather than bleeding them dry. In return, the Saints attacked them anyway. Of course, there were some members who did respect his family’s efforts to make peace, such as Alexander Crest. Hunters like him were the reason why the Hygraces still bothered to hold up their end of the deal. They might not have been able to convince every Saint to leave them be, but there were still enough who turned a blind eye that it was worth the effort.

However, there was no point in discussing the issue since complaining wouldn’t solve anything, so he didn’t say anything more about it.

“Thank you for treating me,” Vail said to his father as he rose from the bed. He picked up the clothes he’d discarded in order for Peter to clean his shoulder effectively, though he had a feeling he was just going to throw them away tomorrow. Everything he’d been wearing on his upper body was stained with his blood. It was probably unsalvageable. Still, tossing out a few articles of clothing was a minor loss considering he’d been shot with a gun, so he wasn’t upset about it.

“You’re welcome,” Lord Hygrace nodded, collecting the rags he’d used that were just as bloody as his son’s shirt.

“Please don’t forget to let either of us know if you don’t feel right in the morning,” his mother added with a frown.

“Of course,” Vail promised, ignoring her concern. He knew he wasn’t in any danger now that the worst of his injury had been taken care of. Even if Peter had missed a flake or two of silver, the miniscule amount wasn’t enough to do him serious harm very fast. As long as he caught it within a few days, he was sure he would be fine.

“Goodnight,” he tipped his head courteously to his parents before retiring to his bedchamber for the night.

--

The previous morning had been unpleasant, but it was nothing compared to the discomfort Vail felt when he woke up today. He groaned as consciousness brought along with it a series of aches throughout his body. The fresh wounds in his shoulder and leg refused to be forgotten, paining him as he shifted on his bed. Though they had both been cleaned and bandaged the night before, he had a feeling they were going to take some time to heal. Injuries inflicted by silver had a nasty habit of lingering longer than they were welcome that way.

Even worse than the pangs from his wounds, however, were the withdrawal symptoms. After going another night without feeding, his jaw was incessantly sore and he was beginning to feel generally uncomfortable. He couldn’t even think about anything other than going out to hunt, which put his wounds at the back of his mind. It was a survival instinct, he was sure, since it would allow him to take a victim without being held back by his injuries; but at the moment, he would have rather suffered physical pain than deal with the agonizing lust for blood that had replaced it.

He stretched his jaw, attempting to ease the ache. This was all her fault, that nosey Crest heiress, Victoria. If she had just walked away at the tavern, he could have fed on the woman he’d been targeting and gone back to the Hygrace manor without any trouble. Instead, she just had to taunt him with that potent blood of hers, fragrant, tantalizing… irresistible. In spite of himself, his mind wandered back to the moment when she had waved her cut beneath his nose. Even though it had been the cause of his frenzy and something he knew he should be mad about, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Perhaps it was just because he was ravenously hungry, but he found it difficult not to be drawn to seeking her out again. He’d been stopped the last time, but maybe, if he tried again, he could get just a taste of that piquant blood…

A knock at the door drew Vail from his thoughts. Glancing up, he saw his father enter the room with a clinical look on his face. “How are you feeling?” he asked, straight to the point.

“Awful,” Vail admitted with another groan.

“Should I check your shoulder for more silver?”

“What? No,” Vail blinked, realizing that Peter had been asking about his injuries. “I’m healing fine. It’s just the cravings. I can’t get them off my mind.” He sat up on his bed and rubbed his eyes. “It’s getting unbearable. I need to hunt.”

Peter studied him with a frown, “I don’t think you’re in any condition to go out, Vail. If a member of the Order catches you as you are, you’ll die.”

“I don’t think I have much of a choice,” he shook his head, which felt a bit foggy from the lack of blood. “If I wait much longer, I’m going to lose my senses. I’d rather go out while I still have some reason left, especially while there are Saints around.”

The older Hygrace hesitated for a moment before he sighed, “I suppose you’re right. It wasn’t your fault that you were stopped before you could feed last time… Just be careful. You’re next in line to lead this family, Vail. I need you to take care of yourself, so you can succeed me when it comes time for you to take over.”

“I know,” Vail averted his gaze. The thought of stepping up to be the next leader of the Hygraces had always overwhelmed him, so he chose not to think about it often. “I slipped up once. I won’t let it happen again.”

“I’m sure you won’t,” Peter nodded. He turned to leave, but then paused. “Oh, and Vail.” He tapped the corner of his own mouth with his index finger.

Vail stared at him for a moment before the gesture clicked in his head. Hurriedly, he dragged the back of his hand across his mouth, where a thin trail of saliva had collected beneath his lower lip. With some embarrassment, he realized he must have been drooling when he’d been thinking about feeding earlier. He really needed to hunt.

Exhaling irritably, he laid back down on his bed, deciding to get some more sleep as his father left the room. If he was going out, he was going to need all the strength he could get.

As she made her way home, the Lady Victoria noticed a carriage parked outside her mansion. “Oh no…” She sighed as she knew Lord Spencer was here. She reluctantly made her way into the house and closed the door gently behind her. She had hoped to make a quiet enough entrance and sneak past everyone and get upto the study without anyone noticing. Except she could not escape a vampire’s ears. “Hello Victoria my dear…”She froze in her tracks on the second step up. She slowly turned around to come eye to eye with Lord Spencer.

“Lord Spencer…” She greeted him somewhat coldly. She then glanced to his hand where he had one of her father’s journals. She immediately felt her heart in her throat. “Where did you get that? Nobody is allowed in my father’s study.” Only she had the key so how did he get in? “Oh, this was left on your nightstand…its very interesting what your father did…if you want, I can tell you more about The Order.” He offered but his eyes held a hidden agenda as they stared her down.

“You were in my room? Looking through MY things?!” She snatched the book off him. “How dare you! Get out of my house!” She pointed her arm toward the door angrily.

“Your room will soon become my room, my dear. On our wedding night. So, you had best get used to me being here and running things from now on. You’ll be grateful of the help, you’ve never had to run an empire before.” Spencer put his misogynistic view across. “You need not worry your pretty little head about anything…only satiating my…thirst…” He leaned in toward her, she felt his whiskey breath upon her cheeks. He could almost smell her blood hidden beneath that sot blanket of snow-white skin. She glared into his eyes. “You don’t scare me, Spencer.” She asked with a cold tone.

“You should be my dear. You would do well to remember your place…in the pecking order...” His hand grasped hers, it felt slightly cold to the touch. But the underlying vampire human hierarchy notion was there. His grip on her hand started to hurt. “Now…be a good girl and come sit with your mother and I. You don’t know how much time she has left..” He tilted his head and his tone grew sinister.

“Are you…threatening me Christopher?” She felt her pulse quicken as he led her into the main lounge where her mother was surrounded by a few other men in suits. Men she didn’t recognise but were all quite muscular and intimidating. “Oh, my dear, you would know if I were intimidating you…” Spencer whispered in her ear as he stopped by the furniture. She felt compelled to sit down on the ornate golden and ivory couch opposite her mother. Lady Diana looked fearful. The room felt tense. On the table was a teapot and cups. One had been poured and Diana was holding her tea cup.

“Tea?” He asked her as he motioned for the maid to come over and pour one. Victoria didn’t feel like drinking tea right now, but she was given one. She was presented with a cup, that the maid shakily handed to her. There was a certain chill in the air. “Now, My Lady Diana. Shall we discuss your daughter’s impending nuptials to become Lady Spencer and the consequent…handing over of your late husband’s estate to me…?” Christopher Jr asked as he sat next to Victoria and gave her a sideways glance. Victoria noticed that there was a paper on her desk that looked like a contract.

“A Pre-Nup.” Spencer declared. “I have to protect my assets in case my…future wife doesn’t uphold her vows.” Spencer sipped a tea that had whiskey poured into it. “Sign it.” He insisted as he waited for her to pick up the quill. “No.” Victoria defied him.

“My dear…you have no ide how to handle the affairs of man’s world. It falls to me to look after you, as my father had promised yours that if anything should happen to him..” Spencer sighed.

“I’ll learn.” She insisted back. A few quiet moments passed.

I’m not a patient man, Victoria.” Spencer picked up the quill and forced it into her hand. “Sign it.”

“No!” Victoria put the quill back down on the table. He could not force her to do it. If he wanted to marry her, it would be without a pre-nup.

“SIGGN IIIIT!” Spencer suddenly shouted and it caused Victoria and her mother to jump out of their skin. Lady Diana even spilled her tea. Victoria started to hyperventilate somewhat as she thought he would strike her. She readied herself for a slap. Spencer quietly stood up and fastened his waist coat button. “Be sure it is signed before the wedding. I trust you wil see to the organisation of the ceremony, Lady Diana?”

“Y-yes leave it to me, Lord Spencer.” Diana gulped. “Good! No expense spared. I wish to marry the most beautiful woman in London.” Spencer announced and flicked Victoria’s chin up, as he took his leave with his man servants. She gave him a deathly glare as he left. As soon as the door shut, Victoria stood up. “Why do you sit there and take that?!”

“Stop it Victoria! You don’t know what he is! What your father sacrificed to keep us safe from people like him!” Diana started to clear up and knocked the teapot on the floor and began to get hysterical. “Mother! Stop! I can protect us now!” She held her hands tightly.

“No you can’t! Don’t be silly!” Diana shook her head and fell back into the seat in despair.

“I can get help, seek out allies. I’ll train hard every day to be as good as Daddy!” Victoria pleaded with Diana. “Maybe the Hygrace clan will hear us out because of father’s truce with them?” She suggested as Diana teared over. “He upheld their end of the bargain. They upheld theirs by not killing anyone.” She knew now that Vail would not have totally killed that girl last night as she read further into her father’s diary.

“Don’t go near the Hygrace family. We cannot trust anyone. We don’t know who killed your father!” Diana stood up and walked to the in house bar. She poured herself a gin.

“Well drinking yourself to a slow death isn’t helping! Daddy’s gone but I’m still here! Am I not worth sticking around for?!” She asked her mother. Diana sighed. “Yes! That’s why I am throwing you the best wedding you will ever have. Because who knows how long we’ll last with things like that roaming around without your father to protect us now…”

“Mother….do you even HEAR yourself? I am not marrying that man. I cannot trust him!” Victoria protested. “I fear he…might be a Wynter member.” She sat down and sighed. “I need to track down daddy’s friend. I’ll be going out again tonight to look for him…”

---

Dressed in her father’s white shirt and black trousers and a long black tailcoat this evening and hair tied up into a high ponytail but with curls for a tail, the ladies inside this particular tavern noticed the Lady dressed rather masculine. “Oh…is she dressed…like a man now? How absurd!” The ladies giggled at Victoria’s expense as she walked past them, ignoring their judgemental comments and headed for the counter. She slammed a gloved hand down on the bar for attention. She wanted to look like nobody should mess with her. Not today. Feeling confident with a holy dagger on her persons and now a crossbow under her tailcoat to boot. No Saint or Vampire was going to hurt her without a god damn fight.

“Have you seen this man?” She held up a sketch of Gerald Alabaster. The bar keep shook his head and Victoria sighed. Time to move on. She left the New Inn and headed for the next tavern across the street. She hadn’t noticed she acquired a shadow…

Vail didn’t rise from his bed until around six o’ clock in the evening. Recovering from his injuries and coping with withdrawals, he found it more pleasant to be unconscious than to deal with the incessant discomfort his body was facing. He’d skipped both breakfast and dinner in favor of sleeping, but when he woke, his stomach begged him to get up for supper. So, not wanting to leave the manor on a completely empty belly, he forced himself to endure the ache as he climbed out of bed and got dressed to go downstairs.

Like the last time he’d woken up, his thoughts went straight to feeding, not on food but on human blood. It was hard for him to focus on anything else. The desire was consuming, and it made time feel sluggish as he longed for the sun to set so he could go hunting. Of course, he could leave earlier if he wished. The rumor that his kind was harmed by sunlight was just another lie spread by the Order. While he always felt stronger at night, he could just as easily travel about at noon as he could at dusk. He just couldn’t prey on anyone in broad daylight, since doing so was practically asking to be caught.

Trying to distract himself from his itch to feed, Vail headed down to join the rest of the Hygraces for a meal. There were quite a few of them who still lived in the main manor, mostly from his uncle’s side. While he was the only son of Peter and Katherine, Reginald had born plenty of children, and a few of them had even gone on to carry the line even further. Sometimes Vail wondered why his uncle had willed the estate to his brother instead of any of his own children, but it seemed to have been a wise decision, because Peter had handled the title gracefully since accepting it a century ago. None of Lord Reginald’s heirs had fought for it either. They all seemed to acknowledge his father as the rightful successor and new head of the family without any conflict.

As always, the long table in the dining room was packed from end to end with Hygraces and a few refugees who were still staying with them. Vail noticed some of them whisper amongst themselves as he joined the meal. Though he had tried not to draw attention to his wounds since he’d come home the night before, he guessed that word had still gotten out that he’d been attacked by the Order. His mother had probably said something. The woman couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. That along with the slight limp in his gait as he approached his seat at the table was enough to make him the center of attention that evening.

Almost as soon as he sat down, one of his cousins fired off the first question.

“So what happened last night?” Ada, one of his uncle’s youngest daughters—though even she was well over a century old—asked him curiously. “We heard you were shot by a Saint.”

“Then you heard most of the story already,” Vail shrugged as one of the family servants filled his plate. “I was out hunting last night, and one of the Saints shot me. That’s about all there is to it.” His eyes wandered over the girl standing beside him in a wolfish manner. Though Peter had forbidden them from feeding on the family servants, he couldn’t stop himself from feeling a little tempted. She smelled even more delicious than the food she had set down for his supper, and she wouldn’t expect a thing…

Suddenly, he girl seemed to notice the predatory look in his gaze and quickly scurried off to attend someone else. He sighed. It was probably for the best, since he and the rest of his family didn’t want the servants to be frightened of them. It was hard to come by humans who were willing to work for vampires in the first place. He turned back to his plate, focusing on eating as he answered intermittent questions about the Saint’s attack from his other cousins.

--

The rest of the evening dragged on slowly. Vail passed the time by reading a book in his bedchamber until night fell over the city and he was able to commence his next outing. As he headed out of the manor, he could already feel his pulse quicken with anticipation. The thrill of the hunt was heightened by his bloodlust, and his senses felt even sharper than usual. Every passing scent was amplified, especially those of the people who were out late for a drink at the tavern. He ran his tongue over his teeth, walking briskly to the nearest pub in search of a new target to prey on that night.

Though he was restless, he was also cautious. With the memory of the Saint’s attack still fresh in his mind, he was careful to watch his back a little more closely than he had the last time. Beneath his tailcoat, he harbored a pistol. The only deal the Hygraces had made with the hunters was to let the victims they fed on live. No one said he couldn’t shoot a Saint in self-defense. If any members of the Order tried to catch him off guard this time, they would be in for a surprise.

After a bit of walking, Vail came to the White Hart tavern. He didn’t even have to look through the window to know that there were a few women inside. The odor of their strong perfumes reached him through the door. Forcing his excitement into check, he smoothed down his clothes and stepped into the room, eager to finally satisfy the cravings that had become so unbearable inside of him.

Lady Victoria was about to go into the White Hart, a voice came out from the shadows. “Well, well, well what’s a pretty lady like you doing out all alone at this hour…?” It was a gnarly voice, one she hadn’t heard before. The voice sent a chill down her spine though. She turned around and could see nothing and nobody behind her or in the street itself. She went to turn back to the white hart door and suddenly something jumped down from the roof and knocked her down. As she recovered and looked up, scrambling for her dagger, she could see a male stood over her, with bared fangs that reflected the moonlight.

She gasped and reached for her dagger, but tis new vampire grabbed her by the foot and dragged her across the floor and quickly into a nearby alleyway. She gritted her teeth and dug her gloved nails into the ground as they scratched at the floor trying to grab anything to use as a weapon. She didn’t know if it was a Hygrace, a Wynter or just a random vampire but had to assume he would kill her. Unfortunately for this vampire, his soon to be rival was inside the tavern nearby. Victoria’s clothes rubbed against her delicate skin that wasn’t used to any roughness touching it whatsoever, it was deeply sensitive. This caused fabric burns as her clothes dragged across the sharp and uneven floor. The slightest trickle of blood seeped out of the removed top layer of skin, on her knee caps and wrists. She could feel it stinging beneath her clothes.

The vampire had her pinned face down on the ground as she kicked up and wriggled. She reached for the crossbow on her back, the vampire grabbed her wrist and twisted it. She screeched in pain. As her enriched aroma reached his nose, it sent him into a frenzy. He grabbed her by the back of the neck and yanked her up merely by one arm. She reached for the crossbow, he got to it with his other hand and pulled it out of the back of her trousers and threw it to the ground. She reached for her dagger and as she grabbed it, he grabbed her arm to prevent it from slashing him. She could tell he was a seasoned hunter. “I’ve never smelt someone as good as you. I’m going to enjoy this…” He said as he dangled his prey in front of him. He bared his fangs with a wide-open mouth and went to sink his teeth into her neck.

Inside the White Hart, Vail picked out his target right away, a blonde woman this time who was sitting at the counter. He didn’t even bother searching the tavern for a more appetizing scent. At this point, he just wanted to feed and go home, so he could get some proper rest without feeling the constant drive to hunt. He rolled his shoulders, wincing faintly as his wound smarted at the motion. Though the pain had dulled considerably over the course of the day, it still irritated him, so he wanted to recover as quickly as he could. Having his fill of this Lady’s blood would certainly help speed up the process.

Eyeing her discreetly, he edged toward the bar, intending to strike up a conversation with her until she grew too dazed from his pheromones to resist being lured away. However, before he had a chance to say a word, he halted in his tracks as a new smell practically assaulted his senses, one that was both intoxicating and bewildering in its familiarity. The Crest heiress was somewhere nearby, and it wasn’t just her perfume he could perceive. It was that rich blood that seemed to always tempt him recently.

Already, he could feel his mouth beginning to water as he looked around the tavern for the Lady. It didn’t look like she was in the room though. Outside... She must be outside. His gaze wandered to the door. In the back of his head, an alarm went off, warning him that he shouldn’t chase after her again after she’d led him to that hunter yesterday. However, the overpowering aroma was more convincing. He couldn’t stand it. As dangerous as it was, he had to feed on that enticing blood.

The last of his willpower fled as he made his way back to the front of the building and out onto the street, where it was easier to track Victoria now that he was away from the tangle of other smells in the White Hart. Right away, he traced her to a nearby alley, but as he followed her trail, he picked up another scent that made him bristle. It seemed a vampire of the Godding family had found her first. Somehow, knowing that someone else was after the same prey that he was just enraged him even more. He wasn’t going to stand by and let another vampire feast on her blood before he did. He’d waited too long to lose his chance.

Rounding the corner into the alley, Vail saw that the Godding had already trapped Victoria and was about to make her into his meal. With no time to think, he rushed at the other vampire, landing a blow to his jaw that knocked him away from his prey. The Godding reeled back, turning on him with a glare and then faltering as he seemed to realize who he was up against. It was well known amongst their kind that the Hygraces were the ruling clan for a reason.

Vail matched him with a glower of his own. Though he had no intention of fighting the other vampire to the death—he was a protector of his own, not a murderer—he would certainly hold his ground if the Godding continued to pursue Victoria.

Fortunately, the rival seemed to have enough sense to back down. His eyes flicked to the Lady on the ground once more before he let out a frustrated scoff and fled.

Vail watched him go, waiting until he disappeared from sight before he turned back to Victoria. With his competition out of the way, there was nothing to stop him from preying on her now. The thought excited him, and he moved quickly as he got down to restrain her before she could get back up to her feet. Pinning her wrists to the ground, he leaned over her and rested his mouth against her neck. Her skin was warm with the alluring blood that was just beneath the surface. He couldn’t wait to have it.

“I think you still owe me a taste,” he whispered by her ear, his upper lip pulling back as he bared his fangs just before he moved to sink them into her neck.

Victoria heard footsteps quickly approach around the corner. A fist flew past her and impacted the Godding Vampire s that he dropped the lady on the ground with a yelp. She began to crawl away from the scrapping vamps, but she just had to glance back to see who it was that came to her rescue. It was none other than Lord Vail Hygrace. She gasped somewhat and turned from her hands and knees about to get up. He watched him watch the vampire scarper but before she could get to her feet and run from him or grab a weapon strewn on the ground, he was soon upon her like the predator he was.

She could see his primal instincts in his eyes as he pinned her down. Her eyes stared up into his with somewhat terror glinting behind hers. But that voice of his, his close proximity to her ear, feeling his hot breath against her neck. She froze but she didn’t feel scared anymore. She could feel her heart almost burst from her chest. His pheromones relaxed her that she couldn’t fight back against the restraint. She knew he was only after her sweet nectar but somewhere deep down, the fact he had her pinned and wanted to take her blood, made her weak at the knee. His desire for her life essence was if he wanted her in a primal way between a male and female. The fact she’d never been this close to a man, made her feel excited. She didn’t want to get away from him anymore, she wanted to know what it would be like to have his teeth sink into her, though she’d knew it would hurt. She knew his tongue would soon be on her neck, which would drive her mad.

Victoria knew the Hygrace heir wouldn’t kill her or bleed her fully dry, she knew at least if he claimed her as his prey, he wouldn’t let any other vampire prey on her. In a way he would guard her to be his. At least for this evening. She did tease him the night before with her cut finger. He did save her from the other vampire killing her. She guessed he deserved his reward and so…she turned her head to expose her neck fully to him as if submitting to his will. All his and ripe for the taking. She trembled waiting for the pain as her voice shakily whimpered “Be gentle….” She managed to plead to the Lord. Once he would have a taste it would be like nothing he’d ever taste before. The enriched blood would sustain him for far longer than any other person’s blood. He’d only need a small amount to feel invigorated enough to feel full.

Vail was about to bury his fangs in Victoria’s neck when her whispery voice caught his attention. He wavered, the slight tremble in her timbre pulling him from his frenzy. She was scared, and rightfully so. He knew it wasn’t a pleasant thing for any human to be subdued and bitten by one of his kind. Though he had never experienced it for himself, he was sure some of his past victims wouldn’t have screamed and fought back if the feeding process didn’t hurt them. However, he also knew that there were ways by which he could make the ordeal less traumatizing for the Lady pinned beneath him now.

Calmer now—the urgency he’d felt before had since fled now that his victim was being cooperative—Vail’s eyes flicked up to Lady Victoria’s face. She was close enough to him that he could see the faint quiver in her red lips. “Just relax,” he murmured, turning back to her exposed neck. It was the only advice he knew to give, since the bite would be less painful if she could make her tense muscles unwind. Apart from that, all control over the experience fell upon his shoulders.

Instead of sinking his teeth into her right away as he had been intending to before, he leaned down and trailed his tongue lightly over her neck. The saliva he produced when hunting had a numbing quality to it that, while it wouldn’t take away most of the sting of his fangs below the surface, would cause a tingling sensation to spread over the area he planned to bite. The gesture wasn’t only for her sake though. As he primed her skin, he also took the time to feel for where her neck felt hottest, as that was where he was going to feed.

After a moment, Vail came to a stop just above Victoria’s collarbone. His heart raced excitedly. He was finally going to get a taste of the blood that had been tempting him for three days, and better yet, he was going to use it to satisfy his craving. A feral look returned to his eyes as he curled back his upper lip, baring the full length of his fangs just before he drove them into her tender flesh.

The control he’d regained was lost again as the taste and smell of the Lady’s unique essence flooded his senses. His fingers curled tighter around her wrists, and his breathing quickened with frenetic energy. Withdrawing his teeth from her neck, he lapped at the blood that flowed freely from the punctures he’d inflicted in her fair skin. It was like nothing he’d ever tasted before, filling him with vitality that he’d only felt once in the past when he’d accidentally drained a victim to death in an uncontrolled frenzy. The potency of it was simultaneously overwhelming and exhilarating to him. He wanted more.

Vail continued to feed on Lady Victoria for a while longer, coaxing small trickles of blood from the bite until he’d had his fill. When his craving had been sated, he pulled back from her, letting go of her wrists to free her as he sat up on his heels at her side. Scarlet spatters painted the skin around his mouth and chin, giving him a nearly demonic appearance in the darkness of the alleyway. However, unlike a demon, he’d never felt so alive. He probably wouldn’t need to feed again for weeks, not with this woman’s rich blood in his system.

Having finished what he came for, Lord Hygrace moved to get up from the ground, intending to leave his victim behind as he headed back to his family’s manor for the night.

Victoria was indeed so scared her lips quivered. As he told her to relax, the grip her fingers had on his jacket loosened. She didn’t know why but she felt like she could trust him for some reason. Like a gut instinct. She shuddered as his tongue swept across her neck, it even felt tingly to the touch. At least was privy to this pleasurable sensation before the pain of his fangs sinking into her flesh ensued. Though it didn’t last long, her heart was pumped her blood so fast that it wasn’t any trouble flowing out of the puncture wounds. She felt the pressure release from her neck and she then felt a cold wet trickle running down to her collarbone and the flicks of his tongue in drinking the liquid.

Victoria felt his hands loosened from his grip. She turned her head to view Vail lapping up the last of her nectar as if enjoying a good wine. As he got up to just leave her there without any care about what state he left his victim in, this aggravated her. “So, you’re just going to leave me out here on the cold, dark streets for any other predator to prey on?” She held her gloved hand to her neck and help pressure on it so it wouldn’t bleed out. She used the other hand to push herself off the floor. “That’s as good as leaving me for dead. So why not just carry on and kill me? Or are you too much of a coward to do it yourself?” She sighed as she picked up her crossbow and tucked it into the back of her trousers.

“I don’t know why I even bothered to stop that Saint from killing you last night. Perhaps my father was wrong about your family being honourable and compassionate…” Victoria muttered as she picked up her dagger next and kept it out to defend herself from any other opportunists. Maybe next time she should just let him kill Vail. She had saved his life and he didn’t have the decency to even thank her for it. Were all vampires this arrogant and obnoxious? It felt like any good deed she did was only met with contempt by God. Here she was, trying to uphold her father’s values, honour the truce between the Crests and Hygrace families and make sense of this dog eat dog world. Feeling so disheartened, she felt like not helping anyone else and only focus on her own mission from now on.

The scent of her blood lingered strongly in the air and would certainly attract more vampires than she could outrun.

Of course, Victoria would never let him get away so easily. Vail let out a long sigh as he heard her speak up behind him, reprimanding him for leaving her behind. What more did she want from him? He had already left her in a decent enough condition to get back to her own manor by herself. It was the same way he treated all his prey: businesslike, unemotional. He couldn’t afford to empathize with the humans he fed on, or else he would risk opening himself up to an attack from the Order. It was far safer for him to go about his hunt quickly and return home before any Saints had the time to stumble upon him while he was out.

He glanced back over his shoulder as the Lady got up from the ground, one hand pressed over her bleeding neck. Though the words she spat at him were obnoxious—she could never just be grateful for his efforts, could she?—he did have to wonder if she had a point. After all, she wasn’t like other humans. Despite the fact that he’d drunk his fill of her blood, the lingering scent of it in the air was practically intoxicating to him. If there were any other vampires in the area, they were probably already on their way to track down the source of the aroma.

His eyes flicked down to the weapons she had collected from the ground. Even though Victoria put up a confident front, he could tell she was inexperienced with using such tools. The Godding he had stopped from killing her earlier had disarmed her easily enough. It wasn’t a longshot to guess that she would go down just as quickly if she was attacked a second time that night.

At her final comment, Vail narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think someone like you has the right to come up with such lofty expectations for me,” he said with an irritable edge to his voice. Reaching into his coat pocket, he retrieved a black handkerchief, which he used to clean the blood from his face. “Despite what you might think, this is compassion,” he went on, gesturing vaguely to the scene. “You’re not delirious, are you? I broke no bones nor injured you in any way that would hinder you from returning to your home. All things considered, I think you should be grateful you didn’t come off worse. Most humans who’ve been chosen to be the prey of my kind are not as fortunate.”

Victoria stared at Vail. She almost scoffed at him. Could he blame her for having this attitude? She was in grief over her father, all the suspects were Vampires right now. How could she trust any of them? How could she trust anyone right now? She was alone in her endeavour. “What do you mean…someone like me?” She slowly walked up to Vail and almost pushed her torso into his as she looked up into his eyes, squaring up to him. “You know nothing about me. I don’t expect anything from you. It’s what my father wrote in his journals.” Her eyes welled up speaking about him. “He kept the Order away from you and your family. And what does he get for his efforts? An early death…” She sniffled and stepped back from Vail. She’d learned Alex had donated his blood to the Hygrace for their starving refugees, his blood recovered much more quickly thanks to the rare blood condition of enriched iron. This saved the vampires from risking everything to go out and hunt. It also meant fewer human deaths. Whether Lord Peter knew this, Victoria wasn’t so sure.

“He thought he could trust you to keep up your end of the bargain. Now he’s dead! And there is no way for you to hide from the Order or the Wynters anymore. Look how easily that Saint tracked you last night.” She reminded him of the Saint that followed them both the previous night. A Wynter had given him away, fed the Lady lies to sow distrust in Vails family name, and about to envelope the Crest estate, grow even more powerful and gain further riches and resources in their plans to move against the Hygrace clan. Victoria was their only eyes and ears to the grounds of both the Order if they approached her and to the Wynters because of Spencer, whom Vail knew was a Wynter.

“So please do tell me how I am fortunate?! How I should be grateful for anything that this shitty life hands me? That I am alone, and I cannot trust one single person in this god damn city because any one of them took my father from me...you’re the one who should be grateful…that you still have your father.” How could he possibly understand what it was like to lose a parent. He didn’t understand the extent of her grief, the pain, the constant aching in her heart, the emptiness. “Well Sir thank you so much for killing me…” She took a few steps backward with eyes glazed over. Gone was her bravado, only the vulnerable girl beneath – raw and passionate, yet so fragile like glass. “At least I got to dance with the best dancer in London before I die...” There was no need to spit anymore venom his way. She turned on her heel, holding her neck but she was bleeding so easily, it started to trickle through her fingers. She had to get home fast and bandage it up. This would certainly hinder her mission to locate the Order and find Alex’s killer as it would take time for this injury to heal. Whoever killed him, needed to face justice.

Vail wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting when he corrected Victoria, but a hostile confrontation certainly wasn’t it. As she stomped up to him so they were practically nose to nose, he tensed involuntarily. While he didn’t really think she was intimidating—perhaps under better circumstances, he might have even found the situation comical—her close proximity made him uncomfortable. He disliked the confusing sensations it caused him. Her words were frustrating, but her feminine smell and the subtle heat of her body were exciting. He found himself both drawn and repulsed at the same time, and he couldn’t decide which impulse to act on.

However, as the Lady continued to speak about her father, Vail was distracted from his conflicted emotions. He frowned, catching sight of a glimmer of tears in her eyes. Not paying much attention to the affairs of the Order, he’d forgotten about Lord Alexander’s recent passing—and that the Saint’s daughter was still grieving. He nearly winced at the realization. Even though he knew it was dangerous for him to sympathize with a victim, it was hard to ignore her pain when she was planted mere inches before his face. Perhaps it was the reason why she had been wandering late at night so often too; a morbid desire to escape the grief.

When Victoria brought up the Saint who had attacked him the night before, Vail had to bite his tongue to keep himself from pointing out that she was the one who had spoken his name out loud in the Black Bull tavern. He was sure that was how the man had found him, but, knowing there was no point in arguing with her over it, he kept his mouth shut. She obviously had more than enough going with her father’s recent death as it was. Fighting over something in the past that couldn’t be changed wouldn’t help either of them.

As she made one last doleful comment and turned around to walk away from him, Vail stared after her, suddenly unsure what to do. Just minutes before, he had been prepared to abandon the Lady and go back to his own family’s manor without a care as to what became of her. However, now that he had seen the kind of emotional state she was in, he felt quite certain she wouldn’t survive to see the dawn if he left her alone now. Any vampire who tracked her down while she was this distraught would have himself an easy meal.

He glanced wistfully over his shoulder, down the street that would carry him home. As much as he would have liked to forget about the Crest heiress and go to bed, he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep if he walked away now. He may not have been the kind of gentleman who help a Lady out of the goodness of his heart, but he had at least enough of a moral compass not to willingly throw her to the dogs.

Having come to a decision, Vail lifted his gaze briefly to the starry sky before jogging to catch up with Victoria. He casted her a sideways glance when he reached her side and then looked ahead to avoid her grief-stricken eyes. “I’ll walk you home,” he muttered, his words more of a statement than an invitation. It felt strange to him to accompany a woman he had just fed on, but he forced himself to endure the discomfort for the sake of making sure she returned to the Crest manor without any more trouble.