Entertaining vampires sucked. Instead of doing what I would prefer to be doing, I was making tedious small talk and keeping my eye on the interlopers.

It was unfortunate that we did not sleep longer, although it was not really sleep. It was more like a blank rest, a pause in time. I functioned well with only a couple hours a day and my loyal humans guarded me well during those hours when I could not defend myself, doubly so since I had bought my feral Jamie, and triply so with visiting vampires in our home.

Young vampires slept during the day almost as much as humans typically did at night, but the need for such a break shortened with age. Magnus and his ilk apparently needed about five hours when the sun was at its zenith.

I knew this for a fact, because I only got three waking hours of a break from them.

My pleasure at my clever manoeuvring of my uninvited guests was quickly exhausted as I was forced to keep them busy, giving them a tour of my art gallery and any other things I thought might catch their attention. Finally, my games room caught their eye, so we stopped and played a few friendly rounds.

Magnus seemed especially caught on the pool table. "I haven't seen one of these in years," he said, for once his sadistic air taking backseat to what seemed to be nostalgic pleasure.

I smiled as if touched by his feelings. I also had pleasant memories associated with the game myself, but I was hardly going to trade sentimentalities with these three.

We played a few games, which were terribly boring because whoever went first typically sank all their balls and won in short order. If they somehow missed, the other player flawlessly won on an almost half cleared table.

"This is not at all what I remembered," he complained.

"I usually take my shots blindfolded to make it more interesting," I informed them. It was the only way my humans stood a chance. Javier was the best out of my guards, but there was a human who worked in the kitchen named Nate who was even better. He could beat me more than half the time when I was playing blindfolded.

I certainly was not going to tell these three about anything like that. I glanced stealthily at the clock on the wall and waited desperately for the sunset to bring their imminent departure.

It would have been nice if I could have left them alone for my own peace, but this was the best way to ensure they did not get too handsy with my humans.

When Magnus announced regretfully that they should be leaving, I did not smile with the happiness his words inspired in me.

"Well, it was lovely to see you again," I said with fake feeling as I saw them back to their waiting limousine.

"Thank you for your overday hospitality. I do hope we did not keep you from anything important."

I chuckled. "Only entertaining myself with my slaves and they are not going anywhere." I smiled with the wickedness I had trained them to expect on my face. "We've got all the time in the world."

"That we do," Willow agreed. "When you decide to get rid of that delicious guard, I should be happy to take him off your hands."

"Of course, if I ever decide to get rid of him alive," I said and laughed as if there was even the slightest possibility I would ever hand Ian over to her.

Magnus laughed conspiratorially along with me and even Katter nodded his head in acknowledgement.

They left to their vehicle, their poor slaves scurrying in their wake. The humans looked extremely thin and somehow brittle.

I did not know why Magnus and his ilk liked their humans in such poor condition. No wonder Willow had been eyeing up Ian. He had proper meat on his bones like a healthy human should.

As soon as their car left, my mind left their peculiarities and went straight back to my new favourite enraged project.

Theo met me in the hall. "Mistress?" he asked.

"Yes, Theo?" He looked a bit nervous.

"Are they gone?"

"They are on their way."

He paused and inhaled slowly. "I let Jamie see printouts of your guests?"

"Why?" I was curious.

He furrowed his brow. "He asked, and it seemed like he was willing to disobey and leave our room to find out. I made him promise not to leave no matter what and to stop calling you a..."

"I don't care what he calls me," I reminded him with a smile and tilted my head to indicate that Theo should walk along with me.

"Well, I know, but Marcel does."

I smiled wider at that thought. "Those two certainly are not fond of each other."

"Well, he spends all his time scowling and plotting against you, Mistress."

My amusement was hard to hide. "Don't worry, I'm well aware. He hates me with a passion. But what did he want?"

"It seems he's looking for someone. I also told him about the databank, it was only after that I realized I might have erred. Apologies, Mistress."

I waved my hand lazily. "It will be fine. In the end, I'll compel him not to speak of it if absolutely necessary. He might loath me, but I rather doubt he'll be running around tattling on me to any other vampires any time soon." I chuckled.

"Thank you," he said. "And he was hoping to see more. I told him he had to ask you himself."

My grin displayed my sharp canines. "Perfect, Theo, perfect. You did very well."

Jamie must have hated this particular choice. I wondered how long it would take him to seek me out.

* * * * *

At the stroke of midnight, there was a knock on the door.

I was not there to hear it, because I did not want Drak to know that I actually was really excited to see him again. Instead of waiting by the front door, I lounged in my queenly chair in my chamber as if I were too good to go down and greet him.

A minute after midnight, footsteps sounded in the hall followed by a knock on the door.

"Open it," I ordered my guards.

Drak strode in as if he owned my home. He probably thought he did, as if we were a part of some shared collective. He was classically handsome with dark hair slicked back off his face as if he were the infamous Dracula himself.

He was not named after Dracula, however. His mother had apparently misspelled "dark" and thought the name looked "cool".

Seriously, who would name anyone something like that? But at least, the name had a pleasing sort of irony.

I narrowed my eyes to hide my pleasure at his presence.

"Hello, Vienne!"

"Hello to yourself, shiftless bum."

"Ouch, you're mean. I've actually missed you, stodgy government drone."

"I've missed you too, I'm hardly a stodgy drone, and your timing is truly awful, Drak. Come, we'll go somewhere we can sit down more comfortably," I said begrudgingly and he followed me out into the hall. My guards trailed behind us.

"Still got a thing for the whole throne room theatrics, Vienne?"

"Why? Are you implying I should in some way not have a throne?" I opened my eyes with the pretense of shocked innocence, but I wrecked it by laughing.

The worst thing about Drak was how he cracked my facade without even trying.

We arrived at my lounge. "I should have burst straight in and interrupted your meeting unannounced the first time I arrived," Drak told me as he sat down and got comfy on one of the chairs.

I scowled at him. "You would not dare."

"I can't believe you treat me like a dirty secret after everything we've been through."

"You are a dirty secret, Drak."

"Oof, like a stake through my heart, love," he said, faking a collapse.

"Don't call me love."

"But what if it's true?"

I scowled at him, but there was something about seeing a familiar beloved face in front of me rather than only in pictures or my distant memories. I adored my former lover and forever friend so much it might be called love. But I was not going to tell him that anytime soon.

I let my frown lift. "You are incorrigible."

"Thank you."

"So, what brings you around this time?"

"Oh, I was in the neighbourhood."

"Uh huh."

"Well, I did hear some rumours," he commented.

"I'm not surprised. Everyone's seemingly obsessed with me. I would think it strange, but then I remember how delightful I am and it actually makes perfect sense."

"Well, the rumours are somewhat less than delightful. Feral human branding?"

"Oh? So you've heard about my little masterstroke?"

"Everyone has heard about your 'little masterstroke'. You're now infamous even amongst the free humans."

I smiled at him shamelessly. If he thought he was going to make me feel guilty...well, he probably could if he tried, but I was not about to admit that.

"They would be burning effigies of you if they weren't so busy using their time and energy for survival." Those blue eyes stared at me as if pleading for me to take his words seriously.

Nice try.

"I'm flattered. It seems a lot of humans are considering monuments in my honour lately."

Drak frowned, annoyed with my flippant response. "Your name is now used as a curse word."

That made me pause. I tried to look sad. "You know, back before I was a vampire, I had a bucket list. I've fulfilled every item by now, except for the last: I wanted to inspire a curse word. If I had known how old I would get, I would have made the list harder. But now that I've succeeded, I don't really think I have anything to live for. How shall I go on?"

My absolute wit went straight over my friend's head. "Vienne, this is serious, like hoards of free humans talking about attacking you serious. If they organize, you could be overwhelmed. What were you thinking? Were you trying to incite an uprising?"

"Why do all you softies keep accusing me of fomenting rebellion? I'm hardly seditious. All hail the new vampire order and whatnot. I simply wanted everything to be more organized and all I get is criticism for my efforts."

He was looking at me as if his eyes could bore into my head and read a printout of my thoughts.

"Fine, I was bored, okay? Nothing was happening and like ninety percent of the reason I put forward the bill was that I wanted to wind Councillor Davidson up."

He was still looking at me suspiciously, as if he did not believe my perfectly rational reasoning. Then his expression lightened. "This is all about Davidson, then? I suppose he does seem your type."

"Am I becoming that predictable? This is a travesty. I shall have to fix that. It seems everyone thinks they know me nowadays."

"I do know you, although no doubt the rest are wrong in their assumptions. You know, you would have better luck with him if you stopped trying to be evil, Vienne," Drak advised.

I rolled my eyes. "I think I know how to catch a man if I want to by now, Drak."

"Doesn't seem like it."

"I simply make their life a living hell until they succumb to my obvious charms, clearly."

"Right."

"It worked with you."

"I wouldn't say that's what happened."

I sighed dramatically. "If you must know, I'm currently working on a bill that he's absolutely going to have to side with for the next quarterly. It's going to be hilarious."

"What is it?"

"Top secret, known only to myself and my most trusted slaves."

He was still doing that thing where it looked like he was trying to read my mind by staring at me. Drak knew me too well, he might just succeed.

For the briefest moment, I considered telling him the truth of everything, but the thought was discarded as quickly as it came. I decided to distract him instead.

"But you're probably famished after all your wanderings. I should offer you a bite to eat."

My words had the opposite effect, because his attention was more focused than ever. "You're offering to let me feed on one of your humans?" He did not even try to hide his suspicion.

"Yes, but only if you can find one who wants to let you." I grinned evilly. "Sans compulsion, because that's too boring. All you can use is words and your pretty face."

"That's all I need. Anyone off limits?"

"No."

I did not want him feasting on Jamie, but the hostile human would be more likely to stake Drak out in the sun than willingly feed a vampire.

"Incidentally, there're actually two human females around in particular who had a conversation about how handsome you were last time you were here," I told him, as an added distraction and to give him hope. "I daresay that they would be pleased to help you out."

"Who?"

"It wouldn't be any fun if I told you that, now would it?"