"No way!" Lottie sarcastically said after reading her brother's mind. "I thought we were bouncing around happily in a field of rainbows and unicorns".

"Get out of my head and fight. And by the way, unicorns are not as friendly as they're made out to be", Hyde riposted. He grabbed a poker from the fireplace and tried to attack the creature in front of him, but the weapon just went straight through it, like a hand through water. "The Hell is this?"

"It's a vampire, you idiot", Lottie said, rolling her eyes, while she tried to hold off a beast. "They're invulnerable to pretty much everything". Hyde spotted a candleholder on the mantelpiece, and grabbed it, at which all the vampires in the room winced.

"Well, they obviously don't like tacky décor".

"Oi!" Renata called from the kitchen. "That's silver, thank you very much". Silver, that was it. They were weak to silver objects.

Quickly, he ran up the stairs to get a better look at what they were facing. There were approximately ten vampires in the room. Ravi was nearest to the broken window, held down by two creatures who were snapping and clawing at his throat. Somehow, Olalla was able to hurt the one that had targeted her, hitting it wildly with a wooden chair. It recoiled and hissed like a viper, bearing its fangs at her. The other seven were all scattered across the room, focussing their power on different people, and desperately trying to nab their throats. They were starving: Tenebrae had them locked up for days. Some became so desperate they turned to cannibalism. One dashed up the stairs towards Hyde and leapt up at him, sinking its claws into his chest. Blood seeped into his shirt, mixed with the black venom its talons were dipped in. He stared at it for a moment, as he felt no distraction from the pain for the puncture wounds in his front, and he looked deep into its crimson eyes. Jekyll would have seen pain and sadness, but Hyde? Only enthrallment and anger. He picked the creature up by its neck, it struggled in his grasp, and he threw it off the staircase. It disappeared in a wisp of purple smoke and reappeared in front of him again.

"How quaint", he muttered to himself and punched it between the eyes. He smashed the candleholder against the wall, so it shattered into a point and then took the vampire by the jaw. The silver burnt against its skin, so it glowed red-hot and it screamed in agony. Hyde smiled slightly, seeing something so full of evil so helpless in his hands.

"People who love themselves, don't hurt other people. The more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer", a voice exclaimed from the doorway. He took his attention off the squirming beast, and to where the voice came from. It was Keres, in a long, dark purple dress and teeth pointed over ruby painted lips. Olalla immediately noticed her and was taken aback. It was her. She was really here. Keres whistled shrilly, and then Olalla caught her eye among the fighting.

"Come, my children, to my side", she cooed, and all the vampires retracted their offense, slinking like shadows to her. "What about you Olalla? Don't you want to join your brothers and sisters?" Olalla shuffled in her spot, clenching her teeth and looking away from Keres.

"I don't know what you are talking about", she said finally. "I've never seen you before".

"Oh, sweetie, that's a lie", she lulled and walked towards her. Roughly, she grabbed her by the chin, mirroring what Hyde did to one of her kin just to spite him. "Because I'm the one that changed you, wasn't I? I was the one that turned you into a vampire".

"Is this true?" Hyde asked, walking down the steps, and accidentally snapping some of the wood off the banister.

"Yes, but I'm a halfling, a daywalker", she replied quietly.

"What does that mean?"

"You haven't told them, have you?" Keres said, and Olalla shook her head at her. "The real reason you joined Tenebrae".

"Don't you dare", Olalla whispered under her breath.

"She was jealous", Keres exclaimed at Hyde. "You were the one that your father chose to take instead of her. You were the powerful one, the one that everyone wanted, and she was just the unwanted sibling. When Louis took you, she could've just ran, we wouldn't have given chase, but she asked to join. On one condition though: I made her more powerful than you".

"So... you joined Tenebrae just to oppose your own family?" Hyde asked Olalla, who was staring at her feet.

"I was a scared child, I didn't know what to do. Keres offered me a chance to find my family, so I took it. She didn't tell me it was a family of enslaved vampires".

"But-"

"Enough!" Keres screamed, and the room started to darken. "I will give you your family, but in return for the Jekyll Ring".

"It's not here", Lottie piped up.

"Oh darling, I may have been stupid enough in the past to give away my genealogy to some megalomanic demon-child". She glared at Olalla. "But not now. I know it is here. I know Hyde gave it to a woman in the Empire. My children and I own the night, my spies live in every shadow that you try and hide your secrets in. When the sun has been slaughtered and the moon rises to take its place, I own you".

"Very dramatic, love", Bella muttered, and slipped the ring off her finger and into the barrel of her shotgun. "You should write a play".

"Such useless literature has no place when there is only one reality", she lulled and slid up to her. In the light her eyes were a bright crimson colour, almost intoxicatingly vibrant. "Bella Charming".

"Look, why don't you just swan off and leave this place alone?" she asked, standing on her tiptoes to seem taller than the vampire. "The ring isn't here, and, let's face it, you're probably going to give us a duff deal anyway".

"What is your deal anyway? Minus the dramatics", Hyde interrupted, and Bella shot him a look that screamed 'I was doing fine. She was leaving'.

"A man for a ring. A ring that we can't possibly use because we haven't a Hyde agent in Tenebrae".

"Unless you've picked up some fourth cousin, no. So why you so desperate?"

"All will be revealed. My offer will stand for five days, I will come each day and you will give me an answer".

"And at the end of it, what will happen to the offer?"

"I'll break its neck", Keres said heartlessly and a vampire near her snarled. "And I'll take the ring from your cold, dead bodies". She then turned, her purple dress swishing behind her.

"What's your name?" Lottie called as she left.

"Keres Lilian Simonis. Queen of the Night Children".