I didn't move from my place in the center of the hall. I couldn't afford to be seen as a threat after such an overt show of aggression. I had let my excitement and a slew of unrecognizable instincts get the better of me. I should have come up with a more subtle way to approach the vampire I wanted to learn from.

Instead I had killed a number of servants of unknown value, and interrupted a celebration filled with vampires who where all likely to have at least some experience in a war with their own kind. They knew how to kill me better than I did. I hid my fear and trepidation behind a lazy grin with a few too many teeth.

The hall was silent for a moment, before I picked up on the barest of whispers, and a subtle tapping going around the hall. Morse code maybe? Either way I couldn't understand what was going on around me. Alvarado moved first, stepping forward and holding up a hand before the guards behind me could try and attack me again.

"You think you can come into my home, interrupt my party, spit on my authority, and escape just by declaring yourself a servant to my father in law?" He paused, visibly restraining himself. "Who are you?" I inclined my head at his words, before my grin became a bit more real.

He didn't recognize me, at least not fully."Well, my name is Donovan." He waited for me to elaborate, opening his mouth when it was clear when I wasn't going to. I cut him off before he said a word. "And come on now, authority? I've been here for two hours and I can already tell you don't have any authority."

I caught some muffled laughter from the crowd before what felt like an anvil struck my face, bringing me to the ground. I spit out some teeth, noting that most of them had already grown back by the time I brought myself back into a kneel. I felt a distant pang of thirst.

When I looked back up at him Vasiliev had grabbed his arm before he could strike me again. "Come now, lord Alvarado, I believe he was talking to me." His voice was rough, commanding, and mildly amused."I can handle the questioning myself." The two shared a look, and for a brief moment I thought Alvarado would attack. Instead he growled, before stepping away and walking out of the hall.

Alek Vasiliev looked to me, his expression growing cold."You've certainly made quite an entrance, but why should I consider welcoming you into my service? A man I've never met, an infiltrator of the worst kind?" I considered telling him outright that I would piss off his step-son, but I imagine he had already figured that out.

I bowed my head."I believe it's best to impart my reasons in private, but for a start I have information of some importance to you." His brow rose. "I know by now that you've started to have suspicions that I'm not who you where looking for, and I also know who that person is."

His head tilted, and a number of the whispers along the crowd quieted."Something was stolen from this place, something of importance.You and yours figured out it was someone disguised as a servant correct? It's not me."

I hadn't noticed it before I was turned, but now that I could think without the ever present haze of pain I could parse out the situation a bit further. I looked over to a familiar face in the crowd, and smiled. "It's her." A maid paled at my words, before trying to run as all eyes turned to her.

There were a number of things off about my interaction with that woman. First, she warned me about the ghouls, about someone being an infiltrator. Then, she realized I wasn't a servant, and she froze up in surprise. Not unexpected, but it was her focus on me following that that gave me doubts.

She came up with a plan much like I had. She realized that she wouldn't be able to escape after whatever it was she had done, and noticed that I was in a perfect position to take the blame. Even then I wouldn't have noticed until she tried to throw me under the bus. She avoided the ghouls and went directly to Alvarado to warn about me.

She could have found the ghouls, and they would have hunted me down before I was finished, she could have yelled for ghouls to come to the staircase, and I would have been caught before I even entered the room. Instead she waited a few minutes for things to pick up, and burst into the banquet hall with the answer to all his problems.

If she wanted me caught, she could have had it managed in a moment, and if she wanted to help she would have been able to simply stay quiet and be scared at the right moments. I had been wondering how my absence had been noticed, how my position as a servant had been revealed without me in particular being singled out. Trua and Alvarado both would have been able to describe me easily. Even if they didn't my wound would be enough of a give away on its own.

A finely dressed noblewoman grabbed her by the hair, before tossing the maid into the center of the room alongside me. She didn't get up, only weeping on the floor as the realization of what was going to happen to her hit. Judging by my own experience, whatever punishment that came her way would not be pretty.

Lord Vasiliev inhaled sharply at the development."I suppose that is worth my...consideration." He looked around the hall."leave us. The celebration is over, and the enemy has clearly already made their move." The crowd murmured at the sight of the maid, and some of the nobles made to speak.

"What's happend here? What was stolen?" He asked, before stepping back at Alek's expression.

"Now." His voice cut across the hall, silencing them all.

The crowd made to exit the hall a moment later, all with some manner of haste. His eyes fell back onto me. "Grab the maid. I have questions for the both of you." I nearly let out a sigh of relief, before grabbing the woman by the shoulder and following my new master outside the room.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

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A number of ghouls followed us as we made our leave. I imagine they were personal servants to Vasiliev over the ones that belonged to Alvarado, but I wasn't really certain how they could be told apart. A limo not unlike the one that took me here awaited us. We were in a towering construction of metal that vaguely resembled a medieval castle, seemingly made only out of the stark grey of iron.

Little light shown throughout the place, but now that I could see in the dark it was far less of an issue. Below us, pale creatures in the thousands toiled away, pushing cranks and pulling chains that held no purpose I could easily discern. They moaned and wailed as they went about their task, emaciated and barely humanoid.

Above them a number of empty streets were laid out, and I managed to make out the occasional vehicle make its way down the roads. Mostly limo's, but a few were cars of expensive make. A number of towers just like Alvarado's stretched into the sky as tall as any skyscraper. A glimpse into the distance outside the city itself revealed a barren waste resembling snow, but I also knew it was at least eighty degrees when I arrived as a human.

Now that I thought about It I haven't been able to pick up on temperature very easily. Strange. So many of my senses felt were in overdrive that most of my experience so far had been something of a sensory overload. To have something so basic all but gone was odd.

I shoved the maid into the car after Vasiliev took a seat, and we started driving as soon as I closed the door. He didn't speak to me as we left the residence, only gripping the maids chin and looking into her eyes. I felt the weight of something fill the car, something not unlike the allure Trua used on me. It felt weaker, less overpowering.

"Who owns you?" His voice was rasping, hungry, and furious. She stuttered as a blush came to her cheeks, and her breath grew heavier.

"Lord Yeong promised he would see me freed." His head tilted at her words, before recognition dawned in his eyes.

"What was he looking for?" His thumb brushed past her cheek, and his face drew closer to hers. She squeaked as his lips brushed her own.

"The location of a key, one that you keep hidden in your very residence." He snapped her neck a moment later, a growl forming in his throat.

A key? One he doesnt want found? I tried to keep the interest off my face. He drew the corpse's neck up to his lips, before biting into it. I waited for him to finish before he turned to me. "I'm a man of my word, and your little stunt pulled my interest, but that doesnt mean I trust what you say."

I leaned back, taking a breath I no longer needed. "What do you want to know?" He smirked, before loosening his collar and pulling out a cigar. He pointed to the corpse between us before he spoke again.

"I know what she was looking for, I know why she was looking for it, but what I don't know is why you where there." The same aura fell over me a moment later, only this one was one of command. I kept my eyes low as I spoke.

"I came to that party as a human, more specifically as a victim of your daughter." His eyes narrowed, and he remained silent, chewing lightly on the cigar. "She tortured me for a while, and left me with the command to stay where I was while the party began."

The feeling grew worse, and I felt a headache begin to form as my memory of the night started to play by me again. "Eventually I managed to overcome it, pulling myself from my place on her bed and escaping into the halls." The memory started to run faster, and I almost felt like I doing it all over again.

"I followed several servants into their quarters, and used the opportunity to steal a uniform to learn more about your kind firsthand. I watched as you and that elder ate the captured vampire, and knowing I was not long for this world I made a desperate move." I stiffend as my mind was forced to the memory of the crematorium, eating the heart of the vampire, forcing it to bite me.

I grit my teeth as every detail of the event played over and over. Blood trailed down my nose as I spoke on. "I used the body to turn myself into one of your kind, so I could survive and move up your ranks." The pressure intensified, and I could barely bring myself to answer his next question.

"Why did you want to be one of us? Why do you want rank and position?" I swallowed, feeling as he searched through my head.

Distantly I realized that as easily as memories came to him, the thoughts associated with them did not. I leaned forward, looking into his eyes with a grin I knew wasn't entirely sane.

"I want it so I can prove myself to your daughter, so I can kill her husband and take a place at her side. I love her." His brow rose.

"Why? She was torturing you not too long ago. If you were strong enough to resist that then you know as well as I that she is nothing like she seems"

I groaned as the feeling grew stronger. Before looking into his eyes and feeling my own blacken.

"I love her, not because I think she’s good or kind, but because she, for a moment at least, took away the loneliness and guilt. She gave me pleasure and pain in equal measure, and she gave me a purpose. Maybe it’s false, maybe its just my own fucked up head reacting to her glamour, but its enough for me, and I’ll cling to it until the world ends."

He smiled. "Interesting."