In the morning Lucian woke from his drunken slumber, his usual grumpy morning persona in full swing as he took himself down to the kitchen looking for a bag of blood. His hair was a mess as always and in his morning haze he forgot that he was only wearing his black jeans. Everyone that was sitting around the breakfast table watched quietly as he strolled in and helped himself to a bag. When he shut the door he saw them, all of them. They had been here for several days, Lucian had no idea how many but it was enough to be a constant headache for him. It drove him crazy but Danika was in his chair every single night, waiting for him to throw another tantrum and storm out of the room. He hated how she was enjoying riling him up. Worse yet, she wore clothes that were far too revealing, leaving him a mess of pure lust.

Five humans sat at the table watching him, the smell of milk and coffee heavy in the air. He squinted at the coffee mugs in their hands, the mugs that Ariella had bought, the mugs that he was positive he had thrown in the bin. Anger filled him, things disappeared on him, things reappeared on him. Things were moved on him, things changed when he wasn't around. It was like this place was cursed or rather he was cursed. This place taunted him, doing things when he was off his head to make him think he was going insane. Lucian thought that maybe he didn't throw the mugs away, maybe he was going to but never actually did it. Either way, it was a vicious reminder of the awful way he had treated Ariella. If these humans weren't here, he would have not seen those mugs again. They would have stayed in the cupboard gathering dust.

'You're still here?' he grunted as he walked out of the room.

When he was gone, Brendan laughed low. He had watched Danika out of the corner of his eye, her mouth opened slightly, her breath hitched. She might have been trying to hide it but her brother could see right through her. She had spent the whole time watching him, never looking away.

'Danika...' he rubbed the edge of his mouth. 'Wipe the drool hon.'

'As if.' she hissed.

She didn't want to admit that Lucian was insanely gorgeous and his body was so damned fine that she thought that it was a real possibility that she might be drooling. It was hard enough maintaining the barricade in her mind, but having him strut around half naked was making life difficult. Danika knew that Lucian had tried to enter her mind several times and there was no way in hell that she wanted him in there helping himself to her private memories. Or her fantasies, especially the ones that involved him.

She knew everything that there was to know about vampires, having taken the course in her education. Vampire history, family lineage, notable vampires. That's how she knew of him and his history. It was her final assignment that she got a high grade for, she could owe her top marks to him, moreover, his family. She had researched the entire matriarch side of his family, the Eliade's. She knew of his grandparents, their death, his mother, her kidnapping, his efforts in the great war between the humans and the vampires, his relationship with Ariella Mordecai and subsequent ending of said relationship. And then there was the harem that she had heard whispers of. This of course, did not make it into the assignment. It was pure gossip, but it was from a reliable source so Danika took it as the truth. She knew Lucian was a total man slut and there was no way that she was having anything to do with that kind of person. Danika didn't need a broken heart. But what she found odd was that there was no one here other than the staff. If he had a harem, then they were well hidden. She didn't even hear anything during the night and being a light sleeper, Danika heard everything.

Lucian was trying to rest on the chaise in the lounge, at least, he had hoped for rest. All he could hear was whispering, it was driving him insane. The director was discussing his vision for the clip, trying to persuade the band members into something. Only catching snippets of words here and there, he couldn't make the entire conversation out. There was a soft rapping on the door, he could hear the rustle of material.

'Your highness.'

'Elena.'

'My apologies, but the director wishes to speak with you.'

'Of course he does.' Lucian groaned.

Rising from the lounge, his head swirled from the hangover, now he wished he hadn't consumed the entire bottle of scotch. Or the rum.

'Lucian...' Bill greeted him a little too enthusiastically. 'We have been discussing the clip and want to run some things past you.'

He couldn't believe it but he actually agreed to listen. He resolved that he must still be drunk.

'We were wanting the maids to be in the clip, as maids of course, dressing the main character.'

'Oh.' he said eyes wide.

Now he was listening.

'Of course, their current attire doesn't match with the theme of the clip. We want to at least try to keep with the age of the building.'

'So what you are asking is that if we have clothes that are what? A thousand years old? Two thousand years old? I didn't know material lasted that long.' He tried to hide his disdain but failed.

'Uh, well I suppose we could get some wardrobe happening on it. Might not be true to the era but...'

'Come on.' he groaned as he turned to the stairs.

Several flights of stairs later they were in the attic. It was a cavernous room that held a lot of old furniture in it. No one ever ventured up here, the memories of his grandparents were held in these few pieces. Bill was making a lot of appreciative gasps as he walked through the pieces of furniture, Lucian was by a window looking out on the garden. It was a long way down but he could make one distinctive figure out. Danika was walking through the formal garden, her hand running over the neatly trimmed hedges. She wandered along the gravel path, reaching a stone garden bench. For a while she was sitting in the centre, doing something on her phone, then she turned and laid down as she spoke to someone on it. Lucian was left a little dumbfounded, the skirt fell down her legs as she propped one onto the bench and the other crossing over it. He thought it was lucky she was facing away from him, otherwise he would have seen a whole lot more than he should have.

Bill's gasps were drawing closer, Lucian turned to see he had found the tall robes in the centre of the room. He wandered over and began searching, wanting to get out of the attic. Wanting to get away from the memories. Lucian searched through the robes and found two black dresses with the white frilled aprons.

'Is this sufficient?'

'Perfect.' Bill had a grin on his face a mile wide.

He eyed the robes, the tall dark wood gold mines. Most of the things in the attic were covered in white sheets, everything except the robes, four in total and a two dressers at the end of the room.

'Is there anything else in here perchance?'

'These belonged to my grandparents Bill, my dead grandparents.'

'Ok Lucian I get where you are coming from, they are sentimental pieces. We will take care of them.'

Reluctantly Lucian moved along to the next robe and found it full of his grandfather's clothes.

'Hey there was another thing that I wanted to ask you.'

He gauged his reaction carefully, knowing that Lucian was easily annoyed. He'd known him for less than a week and he had gotten to see that particular character trait a lot.

'We, uh... I had a vision of a male in the clip as well.'

Bill flicked his fingers through the male clothes, waiting for Lucian to outright refuse.

'It's a vampire type clip, we had fake fangs but in comparison to the ones you guys have, they just look ridiculous.'

'So you want me to be in it?'

'Yes. I would really appreciate it, it would mean a lot to me, you know, not having to find a male character, crappy looking fangs. At least with you there's realism.'

'Fine.'

For a few seconds Bill wondered if he had imagined Lucian's response. He couldn't believe that he had agreed so quickly and so easily.

'Excellent, will this fit you?'

Lucian looked on at the black suit, the fine brocade jacket, the black cotton shirt. Bill chuckled as he picked up a walking stick, the handle an intricate pattern weaved into the silver, the family crest sat at the end.

'How cool is this?'

Lucian opened the other side of the door and pulled out a black tie that had the family crest embroidered in black, a subtle ode to the lineage. He moved along to the next robe and found it full of his grandmother's things.

'What is the size of your character, will these fit?'

'Yeah, I'm sure Danika could get them on.'

Lucian's eyes flew up to Bill.

'Danika?' he whispered surprised.

'Yep.' he pulled out a black dress, passing them to his assistant who waited patiently in the wings.

'Is there any way that you naturally appear more pale?'

'When I deprive myself of blood, yes, I will look pale. But you don't want that.'

'What if we had a bag ready?'

'Dangerous.' he warned.

'But...'

'No. Trust me, deprive a vampire and you will regret it.'

Lucian ushered them out of the attic, no longer wishing to remain in there. Bill was being far too pushy when it came to the blood and wanted the subject dropped fast. Lucian didn't want them to panic if he were to explain what would happen if he were deprived of blood. Frenzy. One frenzied blood lust driven by the lingering alcohol in his body. None of them would survive and if he didn't come to his senses in time, he could take out the staff as well.

Then there was the other issue with the room, the items within the room held a lot of memories. It was bad enough that he had to put on his grandfather's suit, that Danika would be wearing something of his grandmothers. But the walls were whispering to him, telling him that there had to be something still hidden up here. If he were to search all of his hiding spots that he might find white relief. Lucian shook it off, trying to ignore the walls.

Finally, free of Bill and his incessant chatting about his vision, Lucian wandered through a room at the back of the castle. It was a disused informal lounge and it came precariously close to the garden near Danika. The hedges could be seen sitting at the height of the window, weaving a patterned path. Lucian could see one red army boot flicking in the air as it rested on the other legs knee. She was still laying on the garden bench a few rows away, hidden by the hedges. His fingers touched the glass of the window feeling the coldness seep into his body. No one had ever captured his attention like this one, no one had ever made him willingly seek them out. But he had, Lucian had slipped away from Bill and sought out a quiet refuge to watch her. Danika was infuriating but cheeky, she caused an upheaval of emotions in him and it shocked him. To have one person stir him up, it was like nothing he had ever experienced. Every other woman that had darkened these corridors were the same, no one had sparked his interest like she had. Lucian watched from the shadows as she sat up and walked back into the castle. She had been smiling the whole way in. He had seen her smile and thought that she radiated incredible beauty but sadly he knew nothing about her inner beauty, she was yet to actually speak to him. He was just as bad, fearful of her reaction, of what she might say if he actually tried to engage her in a conversation rather than just snapping at her about being in his chair. He thought that she might continue to ignore him or worse yet, laugh at him.

Lucian quickly slipped back out to the corridors, seeing her pass through. There was only one way forward otherwise he knew he had to forget about her. He had to talk to her.