“Hey, mum, how are you doing?” I asked, standing beside Mary´s bed early in the morning. I was usually expected to eat breakfast together with the King´s family, but he and I … kind of agreed that this would be a bad idea. And thus, I had time for a little chat with Mary until I would be going to my next meeting.

“Lucinda? You are back?” She said, only slightly drunken on sleep.

“Yeah, it went wonderful! We talked about this and that, push came to shove, and then we kind of agreed everything will stay as it is.” I explained.

“… sorry, but what?” She said confused and rubbed her eyes.

“The war with the elves is over. The army will be defunded appropriately and the burden on the citizens decreased. That’s what you always wanted, right?” I asked and smiled brightly.

“Yes … it is just a bit too sudden.” Yeah, it was early in the morning, and I would have liked to stay in my bed a bit longer than that as well …

“Yup, yup. And I´m off again. You know how it is. See ya!” I explained and turned around.

“Wait, where are you going?” She asked, reaching out to me as I was strolling out of the room.

“It´s in the letter on your desk.” I said, already half out of the door again. “Oh, if you could let the blood delivered there, that would be nice.” I told her and scooted out of the room once and for all. The more I would talk with her, the harder it would become to part from her once again. Nodding towards the surprised maids as I walked out of the mansion again towards an unmarked carriage with a slightly suspicious coachman in the driver’s seat.

In my white dress I hopped into the carriage and closed the door behind me swiftly. Afterwards, I closed the curtains and changed into my black clothing while the carriage still moved. It didn´t take that long for it to stop again. In front of a familiar mansion, I stepped out and this time, I didn´t murder the first guard there was, simply because this mansion was completely lifeless.

It was the mansion of the D’Antonio crime family we brought for cheap under an alias. Not even the middle management knew it was ours now, making it the perfect place to … well, do what I promised Tom all these months ago. I would turn him into a vampire, my first one at that.

He already waited for me as I pushed the heavy door open with all I got inside the hallway. Arms crossed, he leaned against the wall and looked at me with a smile on his lips.

“I don’t want to be turned into a vampire anymore.” I froze. No, seriously, he lied, but I could see he wouldn’t do it for some stupid reason.

“What?” I asked and walked up to him.

“I said, I –“

“I understood you perfectly fine, but this is …” I muttered and tilted my head. I knew what he wanted.

“Blackmail? Lucinda, I know very well how to get what I want, and I also know that I am one of your three pillars holding up your future life after you awoke from a coma. And sadly, I also know from experience that you will get horny enough from a single one of my bites for Pauline to do her magic on you. You need me.” He explained. Honestly, his explanation was completely on point. One pillar was the state, another one the churches and the last one was the underworld. Without him, I would lose control over that and had to start from scratch again.

“… let´s consider this as a betrayal, shall we?” I asked and smiled sweetly.

“Gladly.” He said and pushed himself off the wall. He walked in front of me, and lead me towards a rather dark staircase he took downwards. Down there was probably the storage for all the auctions and Tom didn´t even touch most of the rooms filled with shelves.

Every good mansion apparently had a secret room though. He opened this one by pulling on a magical lamp. Strolling into it, it revealed itself as an anteroom, stacked with shelves and a few glowing magical lamps.

“Where it the whore?” I asked Tom. Usually, they were together, but that Tom wanted to do this with me, must have gotten on her nerves.

“She will come when she calmed down.” I nodded and opened another door, leading into a somewhat brightly lit room. This was a sleeping room, with a few of my things in the corner, and a huge bed in the middle of it. Otherwise, there was just a simple desk inside the room. “The sheets are clean.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” I said and sat down on the edge of the bed, already getting rid of my shoes. The bed felt soft under my butt, and as I ran my hands across the bedding, it was smooth as well.

“How much did this cost?” I asked with interest.

“Enough.” He really did put a lot of effort into this. And especially as he squatted down in front of me, did I realize once more that he truly loved me. His eyes were lit pinkly, but an ominous red was also mixed in it. That red though was of a slightly different colour than hatred, making it impossible to judge what went on in his head.

Well, at least I knew he desired me, and honestly, I probably fucked for less. I would get a servant out of this who could not refuse my orders and was capable on his own. Thus, I wasn’t even bothered as his eyes burned wildly.