Etta turns her walnut-colored brown eyes towards Tallulah, a little less spitefully and with a little more of a tender look. She nods at Tallulah and then brushes some of Lewis' hair back. Tallulah sees the rivulets of sweat dripping off of Lewis' face and tipped ears. She shakes her head, deciding that enough is enough.

"I'm going to get you both out of there, but I want you to come and talk to me as soon as you get free from helping Lewis. Etta, can you agree to that at least?"

"Aye, I agree with it, Tallulah. Lewis needs some help soon."

"I can tell. I'm going to get you both out of there now; hang in there."

She backs away from the cage and turns to face Bragi once again. She loosely affixes him with her look, knowing that because she's used her powers recently, her eyes are dark pools of blackness, wider and sunken–quite intimidating. Bragi grips his gun to his chest and immediately leaps to his feet.

"Relax, Bragi. This is what I look like when I use my abilities. All I did was help them to numb the pain."

Her voice is unchanged, which is perhaps why Bragi doesn't continue expecting some assault on his person. He lowers the assault rifle's barrel back down to the ground and presses his lips into an unamused line.

"Fine. Did you decide?"

"Yes, I want you to take them to whatever medical ward, center, or person you have on-site–and I know you all have at least one, just to keep your food sources alive for long enough to be worth the effort to keep them locked up here."

Bragi shrugs–not denying it–then looks at her like he's expecting her to continue, which she does.

"Next, I want the monetary worth of the horse written out for me in easy-to-understand terms. As I walked by, I saw some of your finance people in those offices, so I know that can be done without trouble as well."

Bragi tilts his head, seemingly bored, as Tallulah continues listing things.

"Lastly, I want to meet with Kofi Freeman to talk with him about the punishment I think is fair for them."

"Can't do that last part tonight."

"How come?"

"Because little Miss Tallulah, he's not here. Can't meet with you if he isn't here."

"Well, who's here then?"

"Percival de Brugh."

Tallulah internally cringes. Of the three, it's the one she's spent the least time interacting with and the one she knows the absolute least about. She presses her lips into a line, then finally responds.

"Alright, if he'll see me, I'd like to meet with him privately."

Bragi made a little noise, like he had laughed in the back of his throat and nose, without opening his mouth.

"Sure, little Miss. I'll send word up the chain. I'll get your escort back here to take you to your room."

"Oh, I'm not going to my room; I'm going to see my people outside."

"Nope, you're not. You request a meeting with the house, and you'll be available the minute–no, the second–one of them agrees or disagrees."

Tallulah frowns, her dark sunken pits for eyes throbbing in anger in her skull, encouraging her to make him pay for the way he's talking to her. Her lips part, and she can feel the itch in her throat as her inner cold desperately wants to spring forth. She clamps her mouth back shut, wrestling with her instinct. Electing for peace, she chooses to nod at Bragi.

He gets back onto his little walkie-talkie and, this time, calls for Micah by name to escort Tallulah back to her room. After that, he walks over and taps the doorway at the end of the concrete wall, which she thought went to a kennel. The security door slides open, and another fairly large man steps into the room. They talk to each other in vampire's speech, so she hasn't a clue what they're saying.

Bragi and the other new guard walk over a few minutes later and turn off the electrifying door of the cell, then unlock it. The pair seem to be getting Lewis and Etta out without antagonizing them further, leading Tallulah to believe and expect them to take them to whatever medical facilities they have here on the homestead. The walkie-talkie beeps on Bragi's belt, so he walks over and gestures Tallulah to the thick, metal security door. Once the door is opened, she steps out next to Micah, who is waiting on the other side, and the door is closed behind her with a meaty-sounding thunk of metal.

Micah looks surprised at the black pits for eyes that Tallulah currently has, even going so far as to take a step back instinctively. She turns her face to look at him more directly, knowing that her power over Lewis and Etta will fade now that she can no longer see them.

"Relax. I was using my abilities inside, and my eyes will return to normal shortly."

"Sorry, Miss Tallulah."

"It's fine. Apparently, I'm to go to my room, so take me back there."

Micah nods at her, then leads her again back along the yellow line. She could find her way back without a problem, except Micah had to open the security doors for them to pass by. She doesn't even hesitate this time when they walk through the room of cycling blood stored in plastic packs hanging on racks, nor does she stop to look at any of the kitchen workers as Micah leads the pair of them back to her room. Silence rules the walk, and it's not until they reach Tallulah's room that Micah speaks again.

"Anything else you need, Miss Tallulah?"

Tallulah starts to say she doesn't but then stops herself, fixing him with a gaze up and down.

"You know the guard named Elijah?"

"I do."

"I like him better than you; I want him to lead me around from now on."

"He doesn't have the same access I do."

"Well, I want Elijah to escort me around, so figure it the fuck out."

Tallulah petulantly turns and slaps her hand down onto the scanner, then opens the door to her room. She steps inside and closes the door behind her with a slam–or as much a slam as the security door will allow. Only when she finds her way to sitting on one of the couches in the overly large room does she realize what she's done.

Just like the vampires of the homestead, she just treated Micah like the hired help, and badly at that, because she was feeling frustrated with something that didn't even apply to him. She leans her back and head onto the sofa, then stares at the painting spanning the ceiling. She murmurs to no one at all.

"Yeah, I just don't care."

A few hours after she was essentially cordoned off to her own room suite, a faint knock raps on the door. She looks over at the door and away from the television she was watching with a blank-eyed gaze. It occurs to her that, as she's standing to get the door, Tallulah doesn't even know what she was watching, as she has been lost in her thoughts for seemingly hours. Drifting to the door, she opens it with a faint tug and looks out to see Elijah on the other side.

"Hey, Miss Tallulah!" comes the enthusiastic greeting from the other side.

She gestures the young guard of the household inside before closing the door behind him.

"Nice to see you again, Eli. I hope Micah wasn't too annoyed with you on my behalf."

"Nah, he was alright about it, mostly. He was more annoyed that he had to get me security clearances equal to his, which is a bigger deal than maybe you realized when you said that."

"No, I knew what I was doing."

"Oh."

She gives him a little smile, then leans against one of the nearest wooden support beams tastefully located throughout the large and open room. She folds her arms and hands loosely across her lower stomach and studies the young, kind guard. He shuffles his feet a little, seemingly awkward at the silent study. Finally, Tallulah speaks again.

"Eli, how old are you?"

"Nineteen, as of a month ago."

"Happy belated birthday, I suppose."

"Thanks, I think?" He looks a little weirded out now.

"Did my meeting get accepted?"

"Ah, no. From what I was told to tell you, it was definitely not accepted."

"What? Really?"

"Yeeeeah. So, about that. I think you don't know, but you don't like… demand a meeting from the liege lords. You kinda gotta request it, and it usually takes a few nights. They have a guy who sorts all that out."

"I thought maybe I was a special exception."

"I guess I could see that, but well, not with Percival de Burgh, if I'm honest with you. He's not like Kofi Freeman or Selena Conghal. If either of them were handling the night-to-nights tonight, they'd probably have seen you. But Percival is like, way, way older. I try to steer clear of him, honestly. It's probably for the best; you'll get to meet with Kofi when he gets back to the homestead."

He doesn't sound entirely sure if it's probably for the best, and his tone doesn't sell it well to Tallulah, but she appreciates that he's talking to her like a person and not an object of worth.

"So, what do you do for fun as a nineteen-year-old around a house of vampires?"

"Play cards or pool with some other guards sometimes, video games in my room when I get some free time, sometimes a few of us swing down to Asheville, but I'm not old enough to get into the bars there unless I skirt in under the radar, so that kind of sucks. Still, when I can, I get in and try my luck with some country gals, if you know what I'm saying."

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He gives her the cheekiest and most authentic grin she's seen in a week. Tallulah can't help but smile in return to him.

"Do you get lucky often?"

He puffs up a few moments like he will start by pretending he's the modern reincarnation of Don Juan. But then he thinks better of it and deflates just a hair.

"I wouldn't say often, but sometimes, definitely, sure."

"I'm just giving you a hard time, Eli. You're easy to talk with, and I appreciate that; I don't seem to get much of that lately."

"Yeah, but you're doing alright. I mean, you got a nice suite in the house. You should see my room; it's like half this size–shit, maybe a quarter of the size if I'm really honest–and I definitely don't have a painting on my ceiling."

"Funnily enough, it's one of the few paintings I know now, which makes me seem so much more cultured than I am. But I'm cheating, see there? There's a placard for it."

"What is it?"

"Theodor von Holst's The Fairy Lovers. It's not the real one, of course, but whoever they got to do this did a fairly good job of putting it to the ceiling."

"What's on dude's head?" Elijah asks, looking up at the painting.

"I have absolutely no idea."

"Oh shit, I low-key expected you to rattle off some crazy faerie hat name or something." He blurts out, laughing.

"Would you like to know the word for that particular 'hat' in faerie?"

"Hell yeah."

"Super-ugly-hat." She replies rapidly in normal language but smashes the words together as fast as she can say them.

He pauses momentarily, then starts laughing, realizing she's just messing with him. She smiles again, genuinely amused by his banter.

"So, what brings you here, Eli?"

"Mostly just to tell you that you weren't getting a meeting tonight and that your two people are getting doctor care. Oh, and that I'm taking over as your escort and bringing you dinner and all that. We're officially twins now."

"I'm glad because I was already tired of Micah–he was exhausting to deal with. When I realized he didn't even like dealing with me, I knew I needed to get someone else. Who better than the young, nice guy who flagged me down that first night and gave me the heads up that no one else would?"

"Aw shit, you're going to make me blush." He grins at her again, all teeth.

"Can I ask you something that might be uncomfortable to answer?"

"Eh… I mean…" He looks around for a few moments, then pointedly taps his ear in her direction. Catching on, she quickly adds in a softer tone.

"If it's going to make you too uncomfortable, then don't worry about it; it's not that important."

"Alright, cool then. Oh, do you want anything special with your dinner later?"

"Whatever the chef picks is good enough for me."

"Nice, easy."

"Can I walk outside now, or am I still on room arrest?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry, you can totally go outside now. Sorry, forgot to mention that."

"It's alright. Would you mind wandering with me?"

"Sure! I mean, yeah, no problem. You want to go now?" Elijah glances down at Tallulah's bare feet and then back up at her questioningly.

"All you sorts are always worrying about my lack of shoes when walking around outside. I swear you'd never be able to stand the Wilds. Come on, I'll survive walking on your perfectly manicured lawn, polished stone and marble floors."

He grins a bit and then sets forth, leading them outside with no real fanfare. He correctly assumes Tallulah wants to return to the same spot they went to when he wanted to hide from lip readers and people who could overhear them. She exhales once they return to the small clearing of shrubbery and the flagstone bench located away from others.

"Thanks for the heads up."

"No problem; I'm all for you most of the time, Miss Tallulah."

She sits down on the bench and pats the seat next to her for him to join. He plops down and takes a drink from a small black half-bottle attached to the front of his black body armor.

"You're a sweet one."

"Nah, I just don't think acting like an asshole is good for making friends with folks."

"Well, that is a good way of looking at it. The old saying is 'you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar' if you've never heard it before."

"Flies like honey?"

She laughs a little in response.

"It's a metaphor, Eli."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I was just joking. And I totally agree; take a look at you. You've been cool and look where you are already here."

"I wasn't trying to climb your vampire corporate ladder, Eli."

"Ha! Good one, but yeah, I get you. Still though, gotta admit you're doing okay."

"I think so, but I do have some concerns…"

"This the part you were going to ask inside that might make me uncomfortable?"

"Mmhmm."

Elijah shrugs his shoulders, then looks left and right before he stage-whispers right next to Tallulah.

"I think we're alone; go for it." He ends with one of his toothy grins again.

"Earlier tonight, one of the two who were locked up for trying to flee with a stolen horse told me they'd overheard one of the guards–not sure if it was one like you or one of the vampires–talking about a plan to 'split them up like juice boxes' when they're given the go-ahead."

"Oh, yeah, they were probably being fucked with by somebody. Some of the guards don't like constantly being worked a few more hours so that the watches around your people aren't missing any holes on the schedule. Damn, they really said juice boxes?" He laughs, kind of like he doesn't want to, but that it is also pretty funny.

"You're certain? And they did, yes, apparently."

"I mean, I'm just a guard, you know? I don't have a secret line to the liege lords or anything like that."

"Micah is your uncle, right?"

"Er, yeah…" He looks a little uncomfortable at the sudden change in subject matter.

"What is Christina to him?"

"Figured out they're related, huh."

"Mmhmm."

"Grandmother to him. When you're part of a living line, you're expected to kind of uh…"

"Be prolific while you're still alive, I'd assume."

"Yep, you got it. They–I mean, for me, it's Kofi Freeman–don't really care how it gets done, just that the family tree keeps growing."

"So, vampires can't produce offspring?"

"Well, I don't know for sure, but I don't think so. They're like, you know, kinda dead, yeah?"

Tallulah nods, lapsing into an amicable silence for a few minutes. She looks out across the valley in front of the homestead, illuminated by the fading moonlight and growing tendrils of light from the sun. She exhales, taking in the beauty of the misty clouds covering the valley's trees. The view is how the mountains got their namesake, "the Great Smoky Mountains" for certain.

"So you don't think that the house intends to use the fey on the property as 'juice boxes' then?"

"Nah, why waste all the time and energy for that? Seems like a lot of effort. Besides, I know for a fact they sent someone to Asheville a couple of nights ago to try and get contact with some faeries there."

"Perhaps you're right; some guard was just messing with them."

"Do you know what you'll do about those two that stole the horse yet?"

"I will ask that they're pardoned and explain the situation."

"Oooh, yeah, it's good that his Grace declined the meeting tonight then."

"Why do you say that, Eli?"

"He's kind of like, really old-school. Horse thievery caused hangings and such back in the day when folks of my skin color worked in the fields without any freedom. Do you know what I'm saying?"

"I do. Does he still hold to those antiquated views?"

"For sure, some of them. Don't think so about all of them, though, since he did turn Kofi, and he's darker than me, Micah, or Christina."

"Thank you for that little tidbit of knowledge."

"Sure, I told you the first night we met that I was going to be cool about things, that hasn't changed none. Can I ask you something?"

"Yes."

"Why don't you have pointed ears like some other faeries in the barn?"

"Oh, I'm not an elf-kin, Eli. Faeries can be many different things, and it's a lump term for people from the Wilds."

"What are you, then?"

"Something different."

"Come on, Tallulah, you can tell me."

There's a very long period when the nighttime noise of bugs and the early calls of the rising birds are the only noises that pass over them. Tallulah's striking green eyes continue to stare out over the forested valley that rests below the homestead they're on. Finally, she exhales a bit of air and murmurs in response to Elijah as if someone else might overhear.

"They call people like me an Austra."

"Never heard of that before."

"No, I'd imagine not many people have outside of the Wilds."

"Are there a lot of you? Big family or whatever?"

"No, very, very few as far as I know."

"So are you like an unicorn then, Tallulah?" His cheeky grin makes an appearance once again. She smiles despite herself.

"No, Eli, I am not an unicorn, and don't lay golden eggs either. I don't really want to talk about me, if you don't mind."

"Oh, er, sure. No problem. Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you or whatever by prying."

"You haven't, it's alright. I just don't want to talk about it right now."

"Alright, cool."

Tallulah turns her piercingly green eyes back to Elijah and watches as he turns away and looks out over the grounds. She wrings her hands for a moment before talking again.

"I'm not sure if I believe the house is trying to find faeries to help my village back to the Wilds like they promised me."

"I think they are. If something gets promised, they'll stick to the exact word they promised. Which can be both bad and good, you know? What'd you get promised specifically?"

She exhales a little, closing her eyes and concentrating so that she can remember the exact phrasing Kofi used. Her mind replays the encounters with Kofi, including the late-night one, which scrolls by the images in her mind a little slower with its sensualness. She shakes it away, almost imperceptibly, trying not to get distracted by all the other fluff.

"He said, 'I will send some of my occult-loving house to find you a fey that will help your people to return to their homes.' when we made our deal."

"There, you see? He said he was going to, so I don't think you got anything to worry about. I know all this is probably, like, a lot, but relax, you're doing good."

"Thanks, Eli, really."

"No problem, Tallulah. Wanna go back to your room?"

"No, if you don't mind, I'd like to sit out here for a while and think."

"I don't mind none. I'll leave you to it though, and make sure you got food in your room when you decide to head on back, alright?"

"Thank you."

Elijah nods, then stands up with a little grunt, stretches his arms to his sides, and then goes back over his head. He gives Tallulah one more of his authentic toothy grins before turning and making his way away from her, leaving her to the little clearing and overlook of the Swannanoa Valley.

She gazes across the mist-covered trees, looking like a serene blanket of wispy gray at the beginning of the morning. Her thoughts drift back to Kofi, a large part of her wishing he was here, or more specifically, in her room when she returns. But there's also that tiny part of her that she'd silenced the other night, which was starting to find its voice again in the back of her mind. That voice continues to warn her against the vampires, that they will only continue to play games, and this little "test of loyalty" is the first of many to come.

She holds out her arm, looking at her wrist where Selena sank her fangs in the other evening, and then runs her own thumb over the unblemished skin where there should be two tiny puncture wounds. Her hand drifts up to the same place on the side of her throat where Kofi drank from her, as well as if remembering the sensation of that night. She sighed, realizing that she was more than a little let down by the fact that she hadn't been able to see Kofi the last couple of nights.

Tallulah lowers her eyes to the grassy ground underneath her bare feet, struggling with the conflicting feelings rattling around her brain. Things were so uncomplicated a little over a week ago. Why did fate decide to do this to them? She shakes her head, feeling frustrated and lonely, with now a thought in her mind that won't go away.

Kofi made a deal with her, but he also neglected to mention that the deal involved two other vampires at the same time. What if his agreement with her also had stipulations that she didn't realize at the time? How would she even know if that were the case, save for the rumor that Etta and Lewis passed on to her?

Her thoughts swirl on and on, swirling the night of sensual pleasure with the frustration and emotional stress of (over-)thinking that perhaps she's been lied to or misled. By the time she gets up and moves back into the homestead and her room, she doesn't even want to eat the food that Elijah had delivered to her room. Instead, she sheds her clothing and walks into the small jacuzzi, settling down and allowing its warm water jets to try and relax her body and mind.