Agnes let me out. That night she was alone in my room, without Selma nor Rowena. I was glad. I couldn't beat to see their ugly wrinkled prune faces.

"Have you learned your lesson?"

She peered down at me. She might be old, but she was still a few inches taller. I nodded reluctantly.

"I have."

"And what will you do tomorrow?"

"I will—I will talk to Uriel."

"And you think that's a good idea?" She sniggered.

"I won't seduce him yet," I said quickly. "I'll—I'll be sorrowful. I'll cry. I'll even throw myself on his feet and beg for forgiveness."

She smiled. "Let's see, then, where you'll go tomorrow."

The next morning, I went downstairs. Adalyn and Bernadette had dressed me up in a silvery grey gown that reflected the light, and matched the clouds outside, and braided my hair and pinned it behind me with matching silver hairpins. Earrings of gemstones also hung from my ears like raindrops.

When I stepped downstairs, all the eyes were on me.

"Lady Margery, you've returned!" Yves beamed.

"I'm glad, you've been sick for a long time: Dr.Gregoire was going to check up on you," Karl added.

"But you look fine," the doctor said, giving Agnes a look. "Oh well, what's good is that you're good."

"Thank you all for worrying about me." I smiled. "I missed eating with you all. It's not often that we have guests."

I sat between Sabine and Primrose again. Primrose sent me a look.

"Oh, that dress. It's one of your favorites. What's so special today?"

"Nothing," I replied. "I'm feeling better to eat breakfast with the guests."

"Well, we were doing good without you."

"Primrose!" Sabine hissed. Primrose turned the other way.

"I'm glad you're back," Cecile said. "Adalyn, would you mind bringing me some sugar cubes?"

"You take sugar?" Dr.Gregoire asked. Cecile laughed softly.

"Dr.Gregoire, we've being having breakfast for nearly two week now. I have sugar ever morning with my tea."

"I apologize, I haven't being paying attention."

"I suggest you do, the diet of a vampire must be noted down." The doctor looked surprised.

"You're right. You know that?"

"I've heard a lot from Karl," she replied. "And I also want to thank you again for the 'encyclopedia'."

"What's an 'encyclopedia'?" I asked. Cecile turned to me. To my surprise, her cheeks looked rosier than usual, and she was smiling brightly.

"You must come to my room today, Margery! Dr.Gregoire brought me back an illustrated encyclopedia about flowers, and it's beautiful. There are all sorts of flowers in the world!"

"That sounds interesting," I said, hardly understanding what was going on.

Was it a book? A piece of paper? Flowers weren't interesting either: visitors often brought bouquets when they came, and Cecile used to dry them, but when they dried, the colors faded. There was nothing beautiful about flowers. They were ephemeral. I am much more beautiful.

I finished my breakfast in silence, and then Cecile followed Dr.Gregoire somewhere while Primrose and Sabine went with Yves, Serge, and Marcel. Agnes gave me a look, and I walked over to Uriel, who trailed about Dr.Gregoire.

"Uriel, I would like to talk to you," I said as I caught up to him.

Uriel continued walking and looking forward as though I hadn't said anything, but then he slowed down so there was a distance between us and Dr.Gregoire and Cecile.

His eyes flickered to Dr.Gregoire, then back at me. Then he looked back at him—no, Cecile, too, and then he sighed.

"I realized I've judged you all too hastily," he said, voice low. "That vampire—no, I mean Miss Cecile—is kind."

I turned to look at her back, slowly walking away, and realized something. She was looking at Dr.Gregoire with shining eyes, and she was smiling. She was smiling like how she did when she read her novels.

"Cecile is nice," I said. "She's twenty-seven this year. She's always been so sickly, and sad. I've never seen her so happy."

"She has? She looks happy to me. In fact, she seems like the most energetic one out of you and your sisters." I was surprised. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"She's very informative and helpful with the interviews and taught us a lot about your culture." He smiled. "I never knew, but vampires could talk to humans like that, too." I raised an eyebrow. 

"Was I not nice?"

"No." He shook his head. "I'm sorry, I judged you without knowing, and provoked you and got you in trouble."

I didn't know how to react. "Well, I'm strong. I can handle it."

He looked at me. It felt like his eyes finally looked at me, without a veil. And I too, took in his features, the androgynous cheekbones and jawline. But now he no longer reminded me of Sabine.

"You're right, though." My voice was low. "I've lived this way my whole life, using my body and I know I'm, well, different from human girls. I don't have shame, and I like the power I hold over men sometimes."

"Yes, I can tell. But it's not power," he said. "What you're talking about is different." I frowned.

"How so?"

"What you're talking about is a trade. You give them what they want, too, unknowingly."

His eyes were strange. Like they were pitying me.

Like Dr.Gregoire, he had that aura like he was above me. I didn't like it. It wasn't like Yves's jovial teasing at Cecile reading romantic novels, or Marcel's shyness, or Karl treating us normally like humans. He acted like he knew so much.

"Do you know," he continued, "about the flower, the amaryllis?"

"No," I replied. "I don't remember names of flowers."

"Maybe you should ask Miss Cecile for the flower encyclopedia later, then." He turned and started walking. "You remind me of them." I stared at his back, and before I realized, my hands were in fists.

Why did he have to speak in riddles? Why did I remind him of a flower? Flowers were pitiful, and I was not.

That day, I followed Cecile, Dr.Gregoire, and Uriel around the Eastern wing of the castle. I had rarely been there too so I watched her introduce the rooms. There was an unused ballroom, and another larger dining room, a morning room we avoided as it was made for the previous inhabitants, humans, years ago, for mornings when the light filtered in and they could embroider or read in the natural sunlight. There were many other rooms, too, and lastly, another tower.

"This was the tower where the Mother of our clan, Mother Edith, used as a room." Cecile's voice dropped, and she stood still and tall, hands clasped together, staring into the room.

I had never seen it, and was surprised to see how bare it was. Had Agnes moved her stuff, or did she simply live like this? It was almost near identical with mine, with a large bed, wardrobe, and a table and two chairs. She didn't even have a divan or frames hanging on the walls.

"Can you tell me anything about Mother Edith?" Dr.Gregoire asked. "Madame Agnes was unwilling to broach the subject."

Cecile looked at me.

"I won't say anything. You know I don't care for Agnes," I reassured her. She fiddled with her white hair.

"Yes, I believe you, Margery. I suppose you'd want to know too, wouldn't you?"

She had seen through me: I did want to know. At twenty-eight, she was older than me by four years and was probably the only one who knew about Edith and Agnes, and the former's mysterious death.

"Edith is Margery's great-grandmother," Cecile began, "and Agnes's sister."

Dr.Gregoire took out a small leather-bound notebook and flipped it open, nodding fervently, gesturing for her to continue.

"She looked like Agnes, with curly black locks always tied back, and she was tall. She looked like she was in her forties, even when she was actually in her eighties. Like Agnes, she had a strange mutation which made her both less sensitive to the sunlight and have less yearning for blood."

Dr.Gregoire's eyes were wide and hungry like a predator's.

"All I remember about her was that people were scared of her. She always lead the Elders and sat at the head of the table. She liked children, though, and was very fond of us. Even me, despite the fact I was so sickly the others talked of disowning me. My father, you see, was a human, and it was already bad enough that my mother was partially human and not of a high status."

"And where is your mother now?" the doctor asked. I glared at him. That was forbidden. I'm sure Agnes made it known.

Cecile, however, only smiled sorrowfully. "She was killed, after giving birth. More like spiders than butterflies, as babies we are fed the blood of our parents to grow up."

"What?!"

Uriel turned to her.

"You mean you all have drank the blood of your mother and father?"

"No," I replied, "only if they are of lower class. My parents were both pure blood vampires of the Butterfly clan, unlike Cecile's, so I didn't."

Cecile nodded, and turned her head away, ashamed. "I drank my mother's blood, and feasted on my father's flesh."

"I cannot comprehend this." Dr.Gregoire closed his eyes and pressed on his nose-bridge. "I cannot comprehend this," he repeated.

There was a glint in Cecile's eyes, and then I realized they were wet—she was crying. Unable to understand what was happening, I turned back to survey the empty room.

What was worse with that? Wasn't it a parent's joy to feed their children? Uriel, too: if he fathered my child, he'd die for her, or him.

"You should've prepared yourself when you came to this castle," I said. "There's things darker than you'd imagine. We are a clan that values nothing but beauty and power, and killing is frequent."

"But I simply cannot fathom one drinking their own parents' blood."

"Do you have children, Dr.Gregoire?"

He looked at me, and then shook his head.

"My first wife died a few years ago. I've being alone ever since, immersed in my studies."

"Then when you do become a father, let us continue the conversation; let me know if you would give your child your flesh."

There was the silence of both fear and sadness, and when we left the castle, Cecile had finally stopped crying.