Nights have passed, and Tallulah has found herself in a kind of limbo. She expected to see Kofi the night after Etta and Lewis had their ordeal–after Percival had declined her request to meet that night. But no, Kofi hadn't responded either or shown up. She'd not seen Micah either, which is fine as Elijah was a better substitute. Tallulah was growing fond of the young guard with his quick-to-smile charm.

She knows it has been a few nights, maybe even a week now since Kofi supposedly sent away someone to locate fey in the nearby city they call Asheville. But, yet again, she had heard neither hide nor hair of anything surrounding it. She had checked on Etta and Lewis in the medical wing the previous night, only to find them separately caged while being treated. Lewis still needed medical attention, but Etta seemed fine. When she asked for Etta to be released, she was denied, so she demanded that Etta be released as soon as possible. But of course, Etta either hadn't been released yet, or she chose not to seek out Tallulah as she said. Another frustration on top of a pile of frustrations.

Still in her room for the early evening, as dark hasn't entirely crept over the lush rolling mountains of Appalachia, Tallulah feels like she can do nothing but pace and pace. She feels a bit like a caged animal, even though she can walk outside, telling her she's worked up too far and needs to relax. She suddenly smiles with some degree of malevolence and looks slowly around her private room suite. Her eyes darken as her smile spreads. Walking over purposefully, she picks up a small vase that seems to be holding fresh evening primrose.

"You vampires think you're so clever with your night-blooming flowers." She says to no one, no one at all.

Then she turns with the vase in hand and hurls it at one of the floor-to-ceiling windows, not caring a lick how much the decorative vase costs. It smashes against the window, spraying water and flower stems in every direction. Tallulah watches the destruction with some degree of satisfaction before moving again. She does it once more a few minutes later, with the same destructive throw against one of the large glass walls and windows. Naturally, the glass window doesn't even gain a crack, confirming Tallulah's thoughts that they are likely a security glass. She smiles wanly at the shattered remnants of the vases and the stems and flowers now littered all over the edge of her room facing the darkening mountainside.

She moves to pick up a third vase, but her door hisses as the security locks are disengaged. Tallulah turns with the chosen sacrificial vase in hand and looks towards the opening door. Elijah comes hustling in, looking concerned.

"Uhh, Miss Tallulah? Are you okay? They sent me here on rapid response."

Tallulah tosses the vase from one hand to the other with a mild smile at Elijah. She doesn't say anything; instead, she turns and flings the vase as hard as she can at the wall of windows. Like the previous two, it shatters on impact, and more water and floral arrangements scatter around.

"Whoa! Whoa! Calm down, lady! What's going on?!"

"Oh, I don't know," Tallulah responds bitingly. "Let's see. Where is Etta? Where is Kofi? Where is the news on locating a fey in Asheville? Where's the financials on the horse I requested?"

"Who is Etta?"

"The homely fey woman that's been locked in the medical area since I made a fit about them not receiving medical treatment. If it weren't for me, they wouldn't have gotten any water when locked up like animals in a cell!"

"Oh."

"Yes, oh. So don't tell me to calm down, Elijah."

"Okay, okay, I can see you're, like, super mad right now, so let's just try to take a step back here." He holds up his hands as he slowly approaches her, almost like he is trying to calm down a wild animal or a horse that has lost its composure.

"Don't look at me like that, Elijah; I am perfectly within my rights to be angry right now about nights and nights of waiting and waiting."

"Definitely agree. But, like, I'm not the enemy, yeah? I'm cool. You're cool. We're cool."

Tallulah slowly exhales through her nose, loud enough that Elijah can hear it as he slows to a stop about five or six feet away from where she's standing. Her shoulders slump a little, the intense anger ebbing away as Elijah maintains his position. She doesn't want to take her frustration out on the young man, so she releases her anger and lets it simmer down to become a slowly spreading discontent.

"Fine."

"Hey, alright, Miss Tallulah. Let's get you out of this room, huh?"

"I haven't dressed for the evening."

"Uh yeah, I noticed that. I didn't want to say anything. I thought maybe it was intentional that you were rocking out with just a little opened robe on your shoulders. How about I step outside and give you, like, thirty minutes or so to get all Tallulah-fied?"

"Tallulah-fied?"

"Yeah, you know. Fresh and clean, something to wear, etcetera."

"Fine. I'll see you shortly."

Elijah hesitates because of how Tallulah worded her agreement, but he backs up a few steps and heads for the door. He steps outside and pulls it closed behind him, with the slight security noise of it sealing and then locking again.

She exhales a long breath in a sigh, then gets on with it, heading to her bathroom to take a relatively quick rinsing shower. Shortly afterward, she finds herself poking through the stocked closet of clothing. Without spending much time, she picks out a suede dress that is a relatively simple affair–at least more simple than most pieces in the overdone closet space–a light sandy-brown color with a playful fringing at the bottom. Snakeskin calf-high boots in the same tan, sandy-brown color are clipped to the hanger.

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A few minutes later, she's finished, ignoring any articles of jewelry that are suggested by the tiny paper clipped to the hanger her dress came on. Let the stylist pitch a fit with her tonight about it, and she'll be in for a surprise, Tallulah muses. She pushes out of the room, her piercingly green eyes settling immediately on Elijah, standing there with his back leaning against the hallway wall.

"Hey! Looking good, Miss Tallulah!"

"Elijah." She murmurs, leaving it directly at that.

"So, check this out. I radioed a couple of times to find out about this 'Etta' you mentioned. They said they released her last night, and the other one–uh, I forget his name–he's due to be released as soon as you sort out his punishment."

"And how am I to determine his punishment when I haven't received the worth of the horse and all the financial information I asked for from that thick-headed gorilla of a guard down in your jail area?"

"So, about that. The house is intending to meet with you tonight." He stops, Tallulah's eyes flashing with some degree of irritation. Elijah carefully continues when Tallulah doesn't say anything. "I just found out, didn't know. Don't shoot the messenger, huh?"

"Which one is it?"

"Uh, erm, it's Her Grace–"

"–Of course! I said Kofi, and they've done everything but consent to what I've asked!"

He holds up his hands again, probably instinctively, trying to convince Tallulah to keep her voice down and not pitch a fit. For whatever reason, this time, it angers her even more. Her face takes on a stubborn set, and she turns right on her boot heel and heads for the side entrance that leads out to the barn and stables where the fey are being kept.

"Er, Miss Tallulah, they–she's–hey wait up. I'm supposed to escort you to see her. If I don't, I'm going to be in so much shit. Come on, please, please don't do this."

She stops at the door that leads to the outside of the house, her hand on the security scanner, which is holding the door in an unlocked state. Elijah's pleading has reached past her anger–she doesn't want him to be punished on her behalf. She turns her eyes to gaze with a hardened glare at Elijah, even though she knows she will give in to him.

"Fine. But I'm not meeting her in that stupid ballroom."

"No problem. I was supposed to take you to their private meeting room, the parlor thing. We can bypass the ballroom entirely. There's a whole bunch of ways to get around this place."

She turns in silence, gesturing with a hand for him to lead on. Shortly afterward, they quickly bypass hallways and rooms in the house. Elijah unlocks security doors as required before they find their way back into a cross-connecting hallway with paintings and busts lining the walls. Sure enough, it leads to the same fairly large parlor where she met the three vampiric leaders of the house during the full moon. Inside, Selena stands with a man kneeling before her, holding one of her smooth, alabaster wrists in both hands like a priceless artifact. The kneeling man's lips are against her wrist–clearly drinking Selena's blood–and she's absently talking with a woman standing next to her as if the man isn't even there.

Seeing the beautiful Selena does the exact opposite of what Tallulah expected–she expected to be quite angry upon seeing one of the three leaders of this house, but instead, a little butterfly starts in her stomach, lightening her mood by degrees suddenly. Tallulah furrows her brow, confused to some degree by her bizarre temperament change, but she doesn't get long to think about it.

"Well, well. If it's not our favorite faerie. Good evening, Miss Tallulah. Thank you for joining us tonight."

Selena's soft, sultry, and satin voice draws a smile from Tallulah. She doesn't even really register that Selena had just backhanded the man who apparently tried to drink too much of her blood from her wrist. The man spills across the floor but then scrambles to pick himself off of the floor. He hurries out of the door past Elijah and Tallulah.

"Guard, make sure that man gets sorted out into your lot. Go on now, off with you." Selena doesn't even use Elijah's name; she calls him "guard" and expects obedience. Elijah turns to hurry after the man as he's been commanded, leaving Tallulah without another word. Tallulah's eyes never leave Selena, and when Selena looks back at her from Elijah, the ghost of Tallulah's previous smile returns.

"Hello." Tallulah manages to get out of her suddenly and impossibly dry throat. For some reason, she isn't sure what to say now that she's in front of the vampire woman. All of the complaints she'd thought over and held in check–save for her frustrated outburst at the beginning of the night–are suddenly gone from her mind.

"Well, don't be shy; come in and join us. Miss Hollis, lovely, would you excuse us?"

The other woman nods her head, picking up a glass of what is undoubtedly blood and sipping from it as she makes her way back to the hallway that Tallulah knows leads to the ballroom. Tallulah vaguely recognizes the woman as she's leaving; the newly exiting woman is the vampire Percival de Burgh spoke to the first time she was invited to this parlor. As that woman makes her way out, Tallulah further makes her way inside, taking better stock of the night's situation. There are two domestics again–a man and a woman–and one vampiric guard standing stock still against a doorway leading to an unknown elsewhere.

"Oh, you're not very chatty tonight, darling. Is something on your mind?"

A little spark of anger tries to flare up in the pit of Tallulah's stomach because she knows Selena knows exactly why Tallulah is here, and pretending otherwise is nonsensical. But almost as soon as the little spark of anger ignites, it's put out and left smoldering. Putting the feelings aside, Tallulah finds herself smiling a little in response.

"I thought we might talk about some of the things you were curious about the other night–the full moon."

"Oh! How lovely! I would very much like to have that conversation with you. Would you care for a refreshment of some kind? I apologize that my beloved Kofi isn't here tonight. He's been terribly busy in the city–there's been a little bit of a disturbance, and he's quite good at handling those types of things."

"Is everything okay?" Tallulah quickly regrets sounding so concerned about Kofi when Selena's painted lips twist upwards at the corners.

"Oh, you poor dear. Yes, yes, everything is just fine. Just a few disreputable sorts are making trouble. Poorly educated types upset about the ugly business the other evening."

"You mean when Kofi killed that man for–"

"–For disrespecting our word before the house and declaring he would not obey us, yes." She gestures to one of the smaller sofas in the room, encouraging Tallulah to enter the room further.

As Tallulah approaches the sofa Selena suggested, the tall, elegant, and raven-haired beauty follows afterward. Only after Tallulah takes a seat does Selena settle in, looking amused, though Tallulah isn't sure why.

"Does that happen a lot?"

"Oh, lovely, not as much as it could. Most don't test the limits of our patience. Are you sure you don't want anything?"

"Maybe just some water."