“It’s just the taste that’s making you blush. I’ve had it happen to me too.” Aileen’s smug hadn’t disappeared at all. “Even though I do have alcoholic versions of this wine too.”

“You did an amazing job, Aileen, that’s for sure.” I said as I took another sip from the drink. The intense flavors definitely made it so that this wasn’t going to be an everyday kind of drink. “Are you sure that I can have all these bottles?”

“It’s a present after all.” Aileen chuckled. “I’m planning to make more of them too, but still in a limited edition kind of way as it takes a while to make them. At least we are lucky that there’s not a lot of demand so we can stretch the supply, as long as you don’t binge drink it.”

“I wasn’t planning too.” I shook my head. “But you can put me on your subscription list if you make more of these.”

“Will do.”

“Could I have a bit of it as well?” Viktor asked, looking at one of the empty glasses on the table.

“Of course.” I smiled and poured a little in for both him and Aileen. “Let’s all enjoy this together.”

After we had all drank a little bit more of Aileen’s liquid invention, Viktor insisted we move on to one of his gifts next.

“Which one should I pick first?” I hovered over the two packages. Viktor had made the boxes the same size, only differentiating with the packaging paper so I couldn’t really tell which one of the gifts was bigger.

“Up to you to pick, Aurora.” He smiled.

“Hmm. Then I’ll pick this one first.” I took hold of the box which was wrapped in a blue and green wrapping paper and started to undo the adhesive tape. When I finally got to the inside of the box I had to think for a moment on what the actual present was. It looked to be a collection of multiple things.

First I took out a round object with a sea-through plastic dome attached on top of it. From the texture on the inside of the object I could tell that it was probably cat-related. “What’s this? Some kind of cat house?” I asked.

“Richtig!” Viktor nodded enthusiastically.

“Why does it have a see-through dome as a roof though? I’m a bit confused about that.”

“Ah, you see…” Viktor stood up and took hold of the cat house, turning the bottom of it towards me. It had a couple of latches attached to the bottom. “You can hang these on the wall, so Shima can climb in and look through the cupola at the room.”

“Oh! That’s pretty neat. And is this for Shima too?” I fished out a plushy yet sturdy cat bed.”

“Yes, that one you can hang against the window so Shima can lay on it and look out into the outdoors a lot better. I have tested it on my windows and it stays hanging really well, even if I put quite a bit of weight on it.”

“Hmmm. That’s very thoughtful of you.” Right as I said that, Shima walked past my back on the backrest of my sofa, purring casually. “You like it too, don’t you, Shima?”

Shima looked at me and then past me to the box on the table, which she immediately went to investigate by jumping over.

“Of course, the boxes are a gift in and of themselves.”

“Cats and boxes, a more iconic duo will never be.” I joked back as Shima was already looking over the edge and into the box. It wasn’t going to take long for her to take the final step into the box, but oh well, at least that left me free to unpack the next present Viktor had prepared for me. “Is this something for me or did you only bring Shima gifts today?”

“Hmm.” He hummed. “Why don’t you see and find out? Do be a bit more delicate with the next set of boxes though.”

“Oh?” That already gave me the idea that it was definitely a present for me rather than for my cat. And when I grabbed hold of the box and felt its considerable weight, that only solidified my presumption. When I then opened the box, I was pleasantly surprised with what I found.

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“A camera and a photo album?”

“Yes.” Viktor clapped his hands once in contentment. “There’s a photo printer in their too, in the bottom.”

“Oh, I see.” There was indeed yet another box stashed in the bigger box.

“I thought it would be fun for you and your partners to keep a photo album, especially if you are going to journey around in your function as leader of our conclave.”

“Aurora, can I see the camera for a second?”

I nodded and gave the box with the camera over to Aileen while Viktor continued his little story.

“Alessia might not have said yet, but you will be required to occasionally travel to the other conclaves around the world. And apart from that, it’s always fun to go and see the world, you’ve got plenty of time anyway.”

Viktor’s explanation kind of melted my heart. It was a really sweet present. “Thanks Viktor, that’s really thoughtful of you.”

“And it’s a darn good camera as well.” Aileen commented as she offered the box back over to me. “This is almost top of the line stuff. It’s practically the best you should buy for amateur photography.”

I was now even more careful with the box than before. “You know a lot about cameras Aileen?”

“I know some because I occasionally work with Phania. She is an expert when it comes to photo cameras.”

Viktor chuckled. “That’s exactly why I went to our dear Epiphania to get a second opinion on which camera to buy.”

“She is our main spy after all.”

“Remind me to thank her for the well-given advice then next time we meet.” I smiled.

“I’m sure you won’t forget.” Viktor smiled back.

“In any case, thanks a lot for the nice presents, Viktor.” I set the box aside to give Viktor a big hug. He returned the hug with glee.

“No problem at all.

“Don’t forget to check out my last gift as well.” Aileen replied.

“I wouldn’t dare.” I took the last of the gift boxes in hand and this one was also rather heavy. When I opened it I was met with a present of the clothing sort. “Are these…”

“An assortment of leather jackets personally selected by me from my favorite stores. And there’s also a pair of boots in there as well.

“Ooooooh. I do like me some leather jackets.”

“I know, that’s why I picked them.”

“Trying your best to outdo me, I see.” Viktor crossed his arms.

“I think you are safe, Viktor. Especially when it comes to the thoughtfulness department.”

“These jackets are really cool though…” I quickly browsed through them but they all looked like exactly my style as well. “I’m going to call a tie, I think.”

“Oh well. Shared first place isn’t too bad.” Viktor smiled and brought his glass to his lips. “Next year I’m going for the victory though.”

“Please don’t make me pick the winner, I’m really not good with that.” I put down the box of jackets too and gave Aileen a big hug as well. “I’m more concerned with giving you something back in return.”

“We will look forward to what you come up with.” Aileen nodded.

“Yes, but don’t try making a wine-blood hybrid, Aileen has got that down already.”

“Yeah… I also don’t have a vineyard, so that’d be hard.”

“It does help.” Aileen admitted with a chuckle.

After I put the boxes away a bit further from the table I sat back down with my two vampiric mentors.

“By the way, Aurora, now that the gift giving is done. We would like to talk to you about two things. Of a more serious matter.”

Viktor nodded in agreement with what Aileen had just said.

“Oh? Would this maybe be about the prisoner we have taken?”

“Ah, you didn’t forget about him yet, that’s good.” Aileen nodded. “That makes it easier to I don’t need to do a recap.”

“Did you find out something interesting?”

“Somewhat, yes. Basically, it comes down to their organization knowing of your existence because of a video camera that we didn’t spot during the cleanup in the park.” Aileen started. “Long story short. They wanted to get leverage on you by capturing Helen, backfired, we pretty much destroyed it all, but not in its entirety.”

“Wait, there’s still people left who know about me?”

Aileen nodded. “There’s actually a couple of organizations who do, but don’t worry. We are currently mapping them all so we can go and take them out in one go.”

“Are they not going to do anything while that mapping happens?”

Aileen shook her head. “For all intents and purposes, we’ve taken out a big portion of them in one evening. There’s a lot of people scared shitless right now thinking we are going after them too so they are keeping their head well and truly down. Besides, our aforementioned colleague is close on the case. She’s not going to let this slip.”

-I suppose I’ll have to thank Epiphania about more than one thing then…-