It wasn’t long after the Cantarinis departed that Sean made his way back upstairs. Upon entering their bedroom, he found Claire standing out on the balcony overlooking the ocean with the moonlight shining upon those dark black locks. Even after closing the door behind him, Sean took a long moment to let his eyes move over her, taking in all of that beauty that she still possessed after all these years.

After waiting a long moment for him to speak, Claire couldn’t help a tiny smile as she spoke first, though kept her eyes turned to the moonlit ocean, “so, did you just come up here to stare at me for a bit?”

“Perhaps” Sean answered with his smile apparent in his voice as he finally began to move across the room toward the door to the balcony that she stood outside of.

“Being a Prince must have gotten far more boring if you have time for such a…” but before Claire could finish her sentence, he was next to her, pulling her to him as he placed his mouth over hers.

When he finally ended the kiss, she smiled up at him curiously, “you’ve apparently missed me in the…” she glanced past him to the clock in their bedroom, “three hours since we woke?”

“Was that actually a question?” Sean smirked down at her, his hands still gently covering her arms to hold her close even after the kiss had ended.

“You are up here a bit earlier than usual, and you haven’t shared any terrible news yet; so it is a bit strange” Claire dared as she continued to look up at him with a questioning look.

Sean just shook his head down at her, “I can only come see you when I have terrible news? No wonder you don’t look that happy to see me very often.”

“Sean, I…” she began as she looked down guiltily.

“It was an observation, not an accusation” he told her gently.

Claire sighed, eyes still down, “neither of us have seemed all that happy in recent years” she admitted quietly.

Sean quickly covered his own sigh as he managed another soft smile, “speaking of all those years, I just had a rather interesting conversation.”

“You as well, huh?” Claire asked as she returned her eyes to his beautiful face.

Sean chuckled, “ladies first; what interesting conversation did you have this evening?” he asked as he finally relinquished his hold on her to lean back upon the bannister of the balcony that wrapped around the entire upper floor of their large home.

Claire took a moment to try and find a place to begin, “I met Palmer tonight. We had a chat while you and his sire were speaking in your office.”

“I figured you’d eventually find him” Sean smirked as he looked down for only a moment before turning his eyes back to await the rest of her story.

“Meaning?” Claire asked, narrowing her eyes as she moved to brace herself on the bannister with her right hand as she turned to face where he still leaned back against the silver-plated railing next to her.

“You saw how pretty he is” Sean smirked.

“A pretty Ventrue” she scoffed, “seems like a bit of a waste, honestly” she added more quietly.

Sean chuckled then, “exactly my thought when I met him and his wife both.”

Claire raised a brow again, “so she’s just as pretty?”

“Extremely so” Sean admitted as Claire narrowed her eyes once more. He then moved on, “so what did your interesting conversation with Palmer entail?” he asked once more.

Claire paused another moment before answering, “for starters, he apparently wants to go into business with me.”

That was when Sean looked a bit surprised, “a Ventrue wants to go into business with a Toreador? That’s a new one.”

“He allegedly wants to just handle the business and financial side while I deal with all those pesky mortals that give us their money” she answered wryly.

Sean shook his head, “and you said?”

“That I would have to think about it; I mean, I closed the place for a reason” she added more quietly, which did cause a momentary darkness to cross Sean’s face as it took him another moment to find a response then.

“The rest of the conversation? You said ‘for starters’” Sean moved on from an obviously uncomfortable subject.

Claire sighed heavily once more, “the rest of the conversation was basically quite similar to the conversation you and I had after the last meeting” she stated as she warily watched for Sean’s response to the mention of that particular discussion.

“He told you that you need to use common sense?” Sean inquired with only a bit of coolness apparent in his tone.

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“More or less” Claire mumbled as she looked down once more.

“In regards to what?” Sean had to ask.

“I told him I closed the place down because of all the bloodshed that resulted from certain very unhappy humans” Claire admitted.

“If we’re considering Tobin and his psychotic family humans” Sean scoffed in a barely audible tone.

“I know you consider them humans Sean; I’ve seen the effect killing her has had on you” Claire told him in a soft, regretful tone.

“Didn’t we already have this conversation?” Sean mumbled as he turned away to cast his own gaze out over the nighttime ocean.

Another sigh from Claire, “he basically said the same thing that I said to you with slightly different words. I told you we had different punishments for a reason, and Palmer told me we have the powers we have for a reason; to keep those around us in check and to keep all of us safe” she cast her eyes down again, “at least now I know how condescending it must have sounded to you when I said it.”

Sean shook his head once more, “but you were right and so was Palmer” he finally resigned himself to admitting, “I need to use the law as it was meant to be used and we both need to stop being afraid to use our powers when they’re called for… even with humans” he then was the one who sighed, “I just can’t stop thinking about how many lives could have been saved if we would have taken action much earlier with Ilana, or even Tobin.”

Claire was silent for another long moment as she joined him in his gaze out at the sea, “so what is it that you feel guiltier for? Killing Ilana at all, or not killing her soon enough?” she made herself ask at last.

“What do you feel guiltier about? Telling me what had been happening at all, or not telling me sooner?” Sean returned the question to her.

Claire needed to only think a moment before coming up with that answer, “two lives lost or fourteen? Guess it’s not really that hard of a question” she whispered.

“So, those damn Ventrue actually do have a point… sometimes anyway” he added with an attempt at a smile.

Claire shook her head as she tried to make her own lips form a smile before continuing, “so what was your interesting conversation with a Ventrue about?”

“I pointed out to her how rare it was to find a female Ventrue, let alone one who had been embraced over two and a half centuries ago. And that somehow led us to a discussion about what it takes to find oneself in a 250 year long marriage” Sean summarized.

“Really?” Claire asked with another curious look back his way.

“Yes, but Octavia and I seemed to have very different answers” he replied as his eyes moved over Claire once more.

A small chuckle escaped Claire’s lips then, “you mean the Ventrue couple isn’t actually a meeting of two soul mates?” she asked wryly.

“That may be the first time ‘soul’ and ‘Ventrue’ have been used in the same sentence” Sean smirked.

“That’s a bit harsh” Claire smirked once more, “I think you and I know well enough that Kindred do actually have souls.”

“Having a soul and acknowledging such are two very different things though” Sean informed.

“I suppose that’s true” Claire had to admit. She then looked back up at him a moment, “it is interesting though.”

“What’s interesting?” Sean returned, the two of them now facing once more as they each leaned upon the bannister.

“Two nearly soulless Ventrue each discussing an alliance of some kind with the likes of us” Claire replied thoughtfully.

“Octavia did say she knew the value of having the right allies” Sean returned with a slight shrug.

“But does she want to be your ally or your replacement?” Claire had to ask.

“My replacement?” Sean returned with another curious look.

“Palmer also mentioned the question of you having an heir” Claire informed quietly.

“Mentioned it, eh?” Sean repeated with a tinge of sarcasm.

“She is almost as old as us” Claire stated at an even lower volume.

“And a Ventrue” Sean reminded.

“And Ventrue are the ones who actually savor the idea of being Prince… unlike us” she added more quietly.

“Us?” Sean focused on that particular part of her statement.

“Palmer assumed that since I was your childe that would also make me your heir” Claire offered, the question obvious in her eyes.

“And I assume that you have as much interest in being Prince as I do” Sean stated knowingly.

“I’ve never been interested in that kind of role; not to mention that in order for me to become Prince at all…” her voice simply broke and trailed off before she found it again, “and if that happened, I know I’d never be able to even go on long enough to be any sort of Prince at all” she confessed.

“So, who do you think should be my heir?” Sean had to ask.

“Yes, planning for your death sounds like such fun to me” Claire returned sarcastically.

“A necessary evil though” Sean nudged.

To that, Claire only sighed, “I suppose we do know someone who’s served kings for years, and someone who is even related to one.”

Sean thought on her suggestions for a moment, “we do trust them both more than our new blue blooded friends I suppose” he admitted, and then continued, “Aidan was technically embraced before Daniel, but Daniel has more experience, and is two generations stronger.”

“Daniel probably would make a better Prince than Aidan honestly; my childe seems to have little interest in holding that role since leaving his human life behind” Claire thought out loud.

“Though we’re not sure what generation Octavia is; and she technically is older than both of them. And Daniel’s never actually said he wanted a Princedom; he may be tired of politics after all these years” Sean added to their discussion.

“Then I guess we need to ask him before we know for sure if he’d even want it; or you have to ask him” she corrected.

“Is that because I’m the Prince or because of him abandoning you to pursue Garnet, like all of your other acquaintances did?” Sean asked warily.

“Both?” she offered as her only answer.

“Have you even talked to any of them since they went back to England?” Sean questioned further.

“No” Claire answered in a mumble as she turned her eyes back to the sea.

“Garnet’s long gone” Sean reminded her quietly.

“And so are they” Claire replied quietly as she finally turned to head back into their room sadly.

Sean sighed again as he followed her to where she took a seat at the vanity somberly, “Palmer and Octavia are moving into their new house tonight too. It’s getting quite secluded around here.”

“Considering how unhappy the other Primogen are, that’s probably a blessing” Claire answered in another mumble as she moved to begin slowly running the brush through her long locks.

“I suppose I’ll have to work on regaining their confidence too then” Sean stated as he gently touched the strands she had just brushed through.

“Too?” she asked as she stopped mid-stroke and looked up at him.

“I think tonight I’ll work on the opinion of the council member who I care the most about” he told her playfully before pulling her from her seat and leading her back toward the bed with him for the first time in far too long.