- LUCIEN-

The room smells like cigarettes -another human habit that's pretty difficult to get rid of. It's not that I hate it, but the scent overpowers everything else's and numbs my senses a bit too much than I'm comfortable with. I walk to the balcony to open the glass folding doors to let the breeze in and another stench hits my nose. It's the smell of the city - the pollution, the reek of garbage, and the nauseating stink of the sewers. I don't know how they stand it, but then my sense of smell is a lot stronger than that of humans and most vampires.

'Just stay inside and light some candles,' Chris would say with that half-smile that brightens the room, leaving whatever it was he'd been doing to light me a scented candle. It helps, which is why I tell Rae to keep some in her apartment at all times for when I visit. She never leaves them out though, for the reason that it takes up her workspace. It doesn't matter how big of an apartment we get her, Rae ends up piling her stuff in every corner of her space and commands the cleaning lady that no documents are ever moved from their spots. That's the problem with unorganized people - they can find everything in the pool of mess they've created, but they can't find a damn pen if you move it to the stationery drawer with a sign on it. I've given up trying to tidy up her place. It doesn't really matter if the mess gives me a headache, so long as she continues to excel at her job. And she does excel at her job, to the point that I don't think I've ever sired another vampire as brilliant as she is. She can be a pain though, with her smoking habits and her exceedingly blunt way of saying things, but she's definitely not full of crap or any annoying girly habits that may interfere with getting a job done. Her love interest revolves around weapons rather than a person, which is a plus. Although I can see from the mess and the faint smell of bodily fluids lingering in these rooms that she does entertain herself with men - and women - sometimes. It's just that none of them had ever been able to tie her down, which makes things a lot less complicated for all of us.

I walk over to the kitchen to look for a scented candle she usually stashes in one of the cabinets and found a couple - rose and lavender. I pick the latter and light it on the black-marbled kitchen island before heading over to the espresso machine to make some coffee. Coffee, I have to admit, is one of the few human habits I rather enjoy, mostly because Chris happens to make one hell of espresso I can't get anywhere else. I wince a little at the sharp pain that rises in my chest as that memory resurfaces. Some cravings take a long time to dissipate, if ever. I wonder when it will stop.

The espresso in my cup tastes mediocre. I suppose Chris doesn't come here a lot or he would have picked the beans and the machine himself. I don't know if I'm glad or bothered about that fact. A part of me wants him to move on, and the other...

The other part of me can't bear the thought of someone else filling that hole I've left in his life.

Someone probably has, I sneer at my own naivety. I haven't seen him in a decade, even though he continues to work for me through Rae, and I can't count the times I've felt that wave of pleasure through the bond. How many times it has driven me close to the edge and ripped apart all my ability to reason. I can't think straight when he tugs on the bond, which is a lot stronger than those of other vampires I've sired because of how close we were.

It's the reason why I need Veronica Wolf dead before she becomes a problem. I know how it feels, how much a bond that strong can influence one's decision, and if a one-sided bond from a single drop of blood can get Lord Remus to lose that much appetite, I don't want to think about what would happen if it's ever completed. It's my job to make sure that doesn't happen, even if Lord Remus believes he can handle it. He's one of the most disciplined and sensible vampires I know when it comes to self-control, but the very fact that he's already been drawn to give her his blood raises a red flag to me. In three hundred years, only Lord Marcus had had a taste of it, and he was a friend, a trusted companion with the same agenda. Veronica Wolf is a human and one that makes a profession out of hunting vampires.

The risk is phenomenal, enough so that I have to call in my best to watch her personally. I need someone I can trust explicitly, someone intelligent enough to catch things before they happen. That's Rae, and since Rae doesn't work on an operation-level job without Chris, I had to pull him back into the loop against his will. The fact that Lord Remus wants me to oversee this operation personally also means I'm going to have to come here a lot, which complicates things on a whole other level than simply trying to live with the stench of cigarettes in Rae's apartment. All because of Veronica Wolf.

The door clicks open, and Rae walks in with what looks like a takeaway from Burger King in her arms, kicking the door closed with her foot. More than a hundred years have passed since she was turned, and still, she retains most of her old habits. Junk food, cigarette, and TV series still entertain her a lot.

She pauses for a second when she sees me, and then continues toward the kitchen, dumping her shoulder bag on the sofa and then her burger on the island next to my coffee mug.

"Have you been here long?" She asks, heading to the fridge to grab a bottle of beer.

I look at my watch. It's 12:15 am. "Ten minutes."

"You should have told me you were coming," says Rae as she sits down on the bar stool on my right. "I could have gotten here earlier."

"And get in the way of your Whopper craving? I'm not that cruel." She knows I don't like to wait, and since being here requires me to stay up way past my usual bedtime, I like to wrap things up as quickly as possible when I come for reports. My work on the other side usually ends at sunrise and begins at sunset, which is about six for both, except on a day like this where I have to accompany Lord Remus to a reception and make sure he returns safely back to the estate. I could have sent just Mel and Dmitri when the threat is minimal, but Lord Remus hasn't been well lately - thanks to Veronica Wolf - and I don't trust anyone else for the job. Thankfully, he didn't linger at the party today and excused himself just before twelve. The truth is, he hasn't been staying out that long since Lord Marcus was gone, not since he's recovered from the depression that lasted nearly half a decade. It was one hell of a mess, and just thinking about it gives me a headache.

It must have shown, or she must have felt it through the bond, because Rae lets out a sigh and puts her hand on my shoulder. "How is he holding up?"

I run a hand through my hair and draw a breath. "Well enough, I think," I tell her. Rae knows a lot about what happened, partly because she's the only one I trust enough to talk to, and partly because she's close to Chris. "Too well, in fact, that I'm afraid he's simply channeling it into something else as opposed to recovering. He takes a lot of risks now, even if it's for the sake of this election." Considering a marriage contract with Aelia Valaris is one of those things I've advised against without success. Which reminds me I should call in the spies I've sent to the Eastwood for reports. Surely there's enough time for me to squeeze that in between tomorrow's staff meeting and Lord Remus' weekly visit to the West Tower. I can read the reports I haven't finished tonight after I'm done with Rae, sleep it off for a couple of hours and be up by sunset.

"You think that's why he's given Vera his blood?"

I stop sipping my coffee and look up at her, my mind running through a series of possible risks and more things I have to do because of that knowledge. "She told you about that?" I didn't think she would. Veronica Wolf, from the information I've gathered, is careful to the point of being paranoid at times especially around our kind. The fact that she's told a vampire of her being poisoned by Lord Remus' blood, showing her weakness, raises a flag to me. There's an incentive to that, I'm certain of it.

"She wants to know how to get more antidotes in case of emergency," Rae says, then chomps down on her burger. "That's why you called us in, wasn't it? You should have told me, but then you didn't want me to know about the bond, did you?"

There's an edge to her tone that tells me she's pissed that I'd withheld that information, and I don't blame her. It's not that I didn't trust her enough, but the fewer people know about the bond, the safer it is for Lord Remus, which also means less work for me.

"I should have," I tell her, not wanting to explain myself on the issue. "I'm sorry. What did you tell her?"

She takes another bite and mumbles, "That she can tell me when she needs more antidote." Then she glances at me. "I also told her about the bond."

A bad feeling erupts in the pit of my stomach, along with a generous amount of agitation that makes me glare at her. "And why would you do something that stupid?"

Rae picks up the beer bottle and takes a gulp, lifting her index finger from another hand at my face. "One," she says, "Because I want to know how much she knows about it, and if she understands how to use it - which she doesn't, not yet anyway." Another finger follows the first. "Two. When you're dealing with someone as smart as Veronica Wolf, you need to narrow down the number of ways she can strike at you. A girl like that isn't going to let you shit on her and get away with it. She's going to strike back, and by showing her the way, we now know what to look for. If she makes a move to pull that string, you'll be ready for it." The third finger flies up to join the rest. "Three, and here's a bonus. Knowing how much you must want her dead right now, the sooner she strikes, the sooner you'll be given a command to get rid of her." She takes a big bite into her Whopper and sends me a look of warning. "If you ever call me stupid again, you can find a new Head of Operation. For your apology, I will be expecting a new Katana by the end of next week. A gold one. Thank you."

Leave it to Rae, to come up with such elaborate ways to lure her prey out of the den. I remind myself again why I trusted her with this operation. That's what she's good at. Catching people with incentives, and cutting them down before they can become a problem. She's right on all her points. I need to know how much Wolf knows about our weaknesses, and if she intends to strike, I'd rather leave a door wide open to make sure she comes through that one instead of worrying about others I can't see. The third point, however, is what I'm having trouble being convinced, or rather having trouble trying to convince Lord Remus to issue such a command given the heated conversation we had about a week ago. I know he's interested in her. Lord Remus has never been able to resist a good challenge, and Veronica Wolf is probably the first and the only female alive to have ever tried to attack him, being human and having her back pushed against the wall no less. I've seen the way she looked at him with her murderous rage. More importantly, I've seen the way he looked at her. The excitement in those eyes was unmistakable, and I could almost smell the adrenaline bursting in his veins as his heartbeat quickened to twice its usual speed. I haven't seen him reacted to anything this much since Lord Marcus died, which would have been a good sign of recovery if only he hadn't decided to give her his blood. One word of this gets out, and his enemies would be here in an instant, fighting each other to get their hands on her to use as leverage against him. My head throbs just thinking about the mess. I have to get rid of her quickly, somehow, without making it a deliberate attempt to defy his orders to leave her alone.

"I hope you're right," I tell Rae with a heavy sigh. "I really do."

She shakes her head and mimics my gesture. "You need a break," she says, looking up and down my state of exhaustion. "When was the last time you really slept?"

"I'll sleep tomorrow." I give her a half smile. There hasn't been a shortage of work to be done, really, especially with the election coming up. Or so I keep telling myself that lie. Lord Remus never works me that hard or requires me to do anything beyond my responsibility as a seneschal. I'm just afraid to stop, afraid of having time. I'm terrified of what will happen to me if I stop long enough to realize what I've done, what I've lost, that there is an absence of something I can't live without. It's not a break that I need. It's -

A wave of something hit me through a bond and I stiffen. My entire body goes rigid despite all my efforts to force myself to calm. I know this day would come. I've known it, imagined it every day for the past ten years. How ignorant of me, to think that I'm well prepared for this, because I'm not. Far from it.

Rae looks down at my coffee cup and then at the door to her apartment. She must have noticed the ripples in my coffee, and the way my knuckles turn white as my grip tightens around it all of the sudden. "He said he'd join me for dinner," she says carefully. "Is he close?"

Close enough for me to feel it in my bones, I want to say. "Yes," I reply and go back to sipping the content of my cup quietly. I can't taste a thing, not anymore, not when I'm concentrating so hard on pulling up a wall around me. I can't let him see any of if - the turmoil rolling in my chest, the anxiety that disarms me, my indecision in everything I'd done and in what I need to do.

"Lucien," Rae says, placing a hand on mine. "Be gentle, please."