Shimmer |✓|

//Poison// Part 3

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No need for decorations, the castle's extravagance spoke for itself. Though the fasthold appeared unfortified, it's gothic design lent an air of dangerous impregnability even Humans couldn't ignore. A sprawling grey mountain, Tidus' home was situated right outside the Village, on a remote stretch of foggy moorland perpetually overcast. The castle towers, and the peaks of the turrets, bit at the sky like hungry needles of darkness, imbued by rain from the clouds.

Welcome to Castle Teped.

The castle interior was less dreary, but uniformly haunting, an knotty display of glamorous portent. Electric lanterns offered an eerie, penumbral glow, revealing only what the human eye perceived. Lurid paintings of sex and destruction aligned the walls, tapestries and murals expressing similar themes of transgression. Follow the heady path of the winding stairs--Supported by wrought-iron rails twisted in elaborate designs, the steps stretched upwards, to dizzying heights, and prolapsed, to depths unknown. Every landing was the doorway to spectacular rooms, like the parlor with the dimpled, red-velvet walls and the library with grape-crystal chandeliers. Pick a drawing room and have a seat. Kick-back on the Victorian-style furniture as a sexy maid pours you a scotch, neat-but don't close your eyes. She might be thirsty too... 

There's no place like Castle Teped.

By seven that evening, the upper tiers had been cordoned off to guests, leaving them free to peruse most of the first floor. Collegiates explored with greedy consumption, nursing red plastic cups served by the pale, obedient staff. Supplying liquor on such short notice was no problem-the butler kept the castle well-stocked: the bottles were stored in the cellar, right across from the refrigerated blood bags.

Tidus stood in the center of his drawing room, watching with disappointment as strangers scuffed their shoes on his furniture, quaffed his alcohol, and adjusted his sound system with no sense of shame.

"Oh, lighten up, Ti. Even if this party wasn't happening, our lives would still be in mortal danger. We might as well enjoy ourselves when we can." I grinned, my bad behavior encouraged by the image of Addy, who had already forgotten her promise to stick by my side. Instead, she was holed in the corner, giving my only surviving study-buddy a lap dance to Bishop's Wild Horses. She moved her body like a siren, French-inhaling what Collin eagerly respired.

"My only interest in this party is the person responsible for it. I look forward to our meeting. In the meantime, perhaps I'll have a snack..." His hungry gaze was diverted to a passing blonde, who raised her shoulder at him in coy invitation. Tidus rarely mentioned his craving for bloody girls, but it was always in his eyes. "Does it bother you? Me feeding on other people?"

"We all survive some way, don't we?" I smiled, cuffing his chin in fond reassurance. "You can feed on whoever you want. It'd be silly to limit your meals to just me. I mean, once or twice is fun, but dying all the time? Kind of a drag."

Tidus took my elbow and drew me close. My blouse was low-cut, a large, triangle of material missing at the small of my back. This was where his hand pressed, his fingertips playing hide-and-seek beneath the fabric as he whispered in my ear. "Sometimes you sound so much like your old self, I almost forget how dangerous you've become..."

Two nights ago...

"...know your allegiance. And you can tell your boyfriend it was a bad move letting me go: you don't fuck with the Alpha." Ethan stormed from the bedroom.

Tidus dropped his Glamour, stepping from the corner and into plain sight, glowering at the empty doorway. "Message received."

I rolled my eyes at the fireplace. "You're not going to take him seriously, are you?"