Three steps ahead, if not for. That´s was how much we were preparing in advance. For example, by forming the council of the underworld, which consisted of us, the D’Antonio crime family, the Tarasov clan and originally the Wolf Street clan as well, we could foster better relations with each other and I could secure a steady stream of drugs for myself. I seriously needed those if I wanted to play Tom´s guard for these meetings.

High on processed Cali flowers, I stood behind Tom, wondering why blood was running out of the ears of Guiseppe Antonio.

“We cannot let these guards to intrude in our territory again! My home was raided. My home!” He said, furious at the king and his righteousness while a little elephant trumpeted on the table happily.

“You aren’t the only one who is affected by this. I thirty of my best men are hanging on the gates, so let us plan how we will deal with that.” Tom said calmly, clearly glossing over the fact that we sacrificed those who slacked off.

“A rebellion!” Vladimir Tarasov said and slammed his fist on the table. He was probably the one most effected by the actions of the king as most of his assassins had their identity uncovered. “And we will slit the throat of that damned saint.”

I smiled wryly underneath my mask  and stared with piercing red eyes at him. If he knew the saint who gave a bit of the intel we had about our three groups to the king, then he would be much more furious.

“I´d say we strike when the king´s losses will be the greatest … let´s humiliate him in front of the whole world.” Tom proposed to the others.

“Humiliate him? Why not kill him?” Because killing the king would be bad for everyone, especially the stability of the human realm? Well, Vladimir Tarasov apparently needed to learn that killing isn´t always the best solution.

“Because the world will not look kindly upon us afterwards. If we get the message along to stop messing with us though … we will enjoy much more freedoms.” Tom said calmly.

“And how do you want to achieve that?” Guiseppe asked while squinting his eyes.

“We will steal his crown on the four hundredth founding day of the Worchester kingdom, exactly one day after the king turns forty two.” Tom commented.

“You want to strike in three months? That’s way too late.” Vladimir Tarasov claimed.

“They will notice if we act to rashly. And we need to consolidate our powers as well.” Tom explained, which seemed to convince the others somewhat.

“Still, I doubt the king will let us go afterwards.” Usually, he wouldn’t. At least when he did have another choice.

“That is entirely correct … if we don’t have the masses on our side. Imagine if all the poor people stood on our side and threatened to retaliate if he touched us.” Tom said and chuckled loudly.

“And how do you want to do that?” Guiseppe asked while stroking his beard.

“It is time for a bit of communism … let that be my problem. We only need a blueprint of the royal palace and as much information we can get about the vault itself.” My ‘boss’ said and revealed what we really needed. So far, we only had the information Mary provided us, but they were a bit lacking to be honest.

“Are you sure this will work? Getting inside there is a hassle, not to mention all the magical traps. While the king´s crown itself is not a magical item, it is still heavily guarded because of its symbolism.” Vladimir added.

“Let that be a problem for the vampire behind me. There is nothing he cannot overcome.” Tom said and pointed behind him towards me.

“It still creeps me out you are working together with one of these monsters.” Guiseppe said, looking at me with disgust, but also a hint of fear.

“Oh, he is rather cute … if he is fed well.” Tom commented dryly.

“Hmm… I agree to that plan then.” Vladimir said and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Well, there was no reason not to agree as they didn´t have to do much.

“Count me in as well.” Guiseppe added, finally selling out his complete organisation to us. We weren’t planning four steps ahead. Humiliating the king wasn’t our only goal. While we were at it, we could eradicate our opponents as well, preferably in secret until we beheaded the leaders of their organisation in a rather flashy way.

We weren’t even planning six steps ahead. It was at least eight.

Finally, after a few more minutes as they fleshed out their plan even further and divided the tasks amongst themselves, Tom stood up and walked away from the lone table in the middle of an empty warehouse. I followed suit shortly afterwards, all while kicking the little elephant in front of me like a ball. It rolled around the floor, trumpeted happily, but kept looking at me in disappointment. Wherever that came from …

Several minutes later, Tom and I were in a completely black carriage. A beautiful scent lingered in the air from the moment I stepped into it, driving both the elephant and me slightly crazy.

“The church of death tried to abduct a few children in the orphanage. The guards stopped it … but it shows it is time we get rid of your enemies you have as the saint.” He stated, which made me think a little. I knew there were still some who wanted to stab me in the back for my heritage within the nobles and the evil churches would stand in my way eventually as well.

“Couldn’t agree more. On my next trip outside the city walls, we will deal with these worms.”

“Here.” Tom said and handed me over a glass bottle, filled with a red, delicious fluid. Wordlessly I took it and immediately bit off the cork, only to let the blood flow into my mouth. Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised. So long did I miss out on the taste of human blood already, so long was I left without this euphoria that I nearly forgot how it tasted.

It was glorious. The best drink I ever head. Ten out of ten would drink again.

I gulped down every last bit of it like an alcoholic who couldn’t wait anymore. A bit of blood flowed down my chin as I couldn’t stop drinking out of this bottle, but it was far too little for me to change my drinking behaviour. As I finished, I licked my lips and swiped the rest of the blood away with my sleeve.

That … all of that … was great. And yet …

“Do you want more? The slave trading business is kicking off and I doubt they will be missing a few litres of their blood every day.” Tom said proudly.

“…” I thought nothing as my brain, now freed from all the drugs got to work in an attempt to find out what he wanted to achieve.

“No children, and no parents. I swear.” He claimed which was the truth. I tilted my head a bit and decided to play with him a little while.

“Even then. Mary did a good job at giving me blood so far, and I really don’t want to anger her.” I said, a smile on my lips.

“Isn’t it your decision what to drink?” He was completely right. But even then, it was also my decision not to drink humans. I could go out and murder humans nobody would miss every day … but I didn´t do so. Taking blood from humans was risky, no matter if they were slaves or not. And even if he killed them afterwards, someone had to take their blood. So far, only the leaders of the other two organisation knew of my true race as a token of trust, and I really liked it to remain that way.

“You know how she is. She likes seeing me drink animal blood because that means I´m not killing any human.” I said slowly.

“Still …” He muttered, slowly realizing that his attempt was futile.

“You. Know. How. She. Is.” I repeated, slowly getting bored of this farce.

“I just wanted to help…” He said, lying straight to my face so badly that I didn´t even have to look into his eyes.

“Yeah, for sure…” I said while laughing loudly. “… but I must say I have a great appetite now. You don’t have another of these bottles flying around, do you?”

“No …” He didn´t think this one through, did he?

“Oh … well, there are other ways to feed me, don’t you think?” I asked and noticed with satisfaction how he started to tremble underneath his clothing. Laughing, I swung my leg over his and sat down on his lap. My fingers were wrapped around his neck while he gulped loudly in front of me.

Fear mixed with excitement as I revealed his left collarbone for the world to see. I leaned forwards and pushed myself up a little using my knees on the bench and started to nibble on his skin.

“Are you happy?” I asked him while my right hand caressed his throat slowly.

“No …” He said while closing his eyes. I chuckled once more until I gripped his throat a bit more forcefully.

“Are you happy?” I asked yet again, feeling incredibly happy about his struggles to breath.

“… no …” He muttered, making me press a fingernail into his skin. Blood started flowing out of it, inviting my tongue to run over it in satisfaction.

“Are you happy?” I asked once again, nearly squishing his windpipe shut.

“… no.” He rattled. Finally, he was telling me the truth. I let go of his throat and let my hand wander upwards towards his cheek which I gently caressed with the tips of my finger, until I grabbed his cheek and forced him to look into my eyes.

“Do you know what I hate the most?” I asked while revealing my sharp canine in a cruel smile.

“No?” He said, slowly trying to back away from me.

“I don’t know either. There is a lot on that list though and one entry is definitely a subordinate trying to control me.” I said. I hated when someone beneath me tried to gain sway over me, no matter who it was.

“I understand.” He said and tried to nod, but my grip on his chin was absolute.

“If you ever try to use my food again me, I will turn you into my food until you say you don’t like it anymore and beyond that. I will turn your fascination with vampires into pure horror, until you beg me to end your pitiful life. And guess what you will be saying then.” I said and pushed me away from him and grabbed my mask. Standing upright in the carriage, I looked down on him, which was way too rare to be honest and put my mask on.

“… I´m sorry?” That wasn’t too bad. Satisfied by his answer, I slowly grabbed his collar and pulled him up from the bench. He wasn’t struggling too much as I took a step towards the door and opened it immediately. The wind tried to push it shut again, but I held it open with one hand while throwing Tom out of the carriage with another. He screamed a bit as he fell onto the ground, but luckily manage to roll himself on the ground.

“Halt it!” I screamed towards the coachman which immediately pulled the reigns of the horses. Shortly afterwards, I looked out of the carriage towards Tom who was slowly standing up again.

“Can you walk?” I screamed towards him.

“Yeah … I think so.” He said slowly while groaning in pain. He made his first attempts to walk back to the carriage while I already turned my attention back to the coachmen.

“Please, go on.” I said towards the coachman who was quite conflicted by the situation. “Go on.” I growled threateningly and with this, everything had been solved. Leaving Tom behind, the carriage brought me to the next meeting point in time.