"I don't see why I need to dress up." Autumn hissed through her teeth. I tugged sharply on her hair as I braided it hoping she caught that I wasn't in the mood for her attitude. Her thick curls were difficult to maneuverer and I'd settled on calling it a messy French braid. Autumn, to say the least was no more abiding then her hair. "It's your stupid friend."
"You'll not say that when he gets here," I said, fingers fumbling against the desk to find a hair pin. From the vanity mirror I could see the plain disgust that maimed her features. I was in half a mind to send both Autumn and Victoria away for the night to save me all the trouble that would surely come. Victoria insisted on being involved, however, and Autumn, well, Autumn was just being Autumn. "He is...dangerous."
It was vague but I wasn't sure what other information I could give her without scaring the girl. Autumn had witnessed a lot in her fifteen years though Family antics were probably still a little much. Kare certainly had no affinity with the witches-no matter how many he slept with and on top of that he didn't like youths. Or sharp tongues or really any of the words that described Autumn. I had a sinking feeling bringing Family into my new life would be disastrous but that logical voice was shut out by a reminiscent, longing voice that begged to belong.
"If he's so bad than why'd you invite him over?" Once again resisting the urge to point out I hadn't invited him, I put the final bobby pin in Autumn's hair. Autumn didn't look all that impressed by my brilliant handiwork, however.
"I never said he was bad, he certainly isn't my favourite person and he isn't exactly good." Frowning hard I tried to word what I meant in my head. Despite everything Autumn had been through she was a good person, something I put down to her natural witch instincts. Her entire mindset was far too typically human. How was I supposed to explain bloodties and the influence the Family had? "Kare's like...Kare's family to me. I've known him longer than you could imagine. He won't hesitate if he feels the need to spill some blood."
Autumn spun in her seat, face hard beneath the tight smile. Her soft eyes were drifting around the room awkwardly. Darting from the rings she was fiddling with to the wooden floor beneath her. After a few painfully quiet seconds passed Autumn took a deep breath and looked at me. "Would you? What about you? Would you hesitate?"
"I like you so you don't need to worry about it."
I had no intention of going further into it. There was no need to get into an argument with someone who, for all her forsaking of witch heredity, had a natural witch moral standpoint. Even if the wolfy half of her was more dominant since they were almost as squeamish as the witches. If all the creationist theories were correct than vampires drew out power back to the fae and all the other nasties of the world while the witches, wolves and shifters drew from nature. The thought didn't sit well with me as it seemed to deny that 'evil' inherently exist. Regardless of the semantics of it we were more similar to our otherworldly counterparts than our worldly one.
Autumn pursed her lips but didn't push it any further. She didn't need to, I could feel the waves of disgust rolling off of her. Of all the gifts the bloodlines had received I was sure mine had got the worst of it. The others had gotten physical powers which they could call upon at any time and we, we of course got odd and fickle mental tricks that controlled us more than we controlled them. Perhaps that naturally sprung from Leif's awful temperament.
"You'll need to learn how to fight," I said quickly, my thoughts wonder to Leif reminded me that there was something awful up ahead. Noting in passing how weak my voice sounded, I reached for Autumn's arm, grasping at soft flesh to prove a point. "You should have some physical strength from your father's blood, not nearly as much as if you'd turned but I'm not sure the pros outweigh the cons on that account."
"That's easy for you to say, vampires inherit strength and agility from their sire, you never had to work for it." Mocking shock and hurt I laughed at her.
"Strength and agility are nothing without training. Besides I did plenty in my humanity. Enough to take on a vampire. It's not about natural ability alone. If you are clever you can do anything." That had essentially been my motto when I was human. Of course not in so many words...and it was all in archaic Greek but if it had worked for me I was fairly sure it would serve Autumn well as well. "Enough of that though. Our lovely guest will be here soon and I'd like to soften him up a little before introducing you all."
Autumn still didn't seem convinced but she nodded curtly.
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As I waited for Kare to arrive, I looked over the messages Erek had sent me. Since my meeting with Kare everything had gotten much vaguer-I suspected this was because of Kare's desire to gloat and Erek's desire to keep Kare out of the loop. The last message made both the most and the least at the same time. A marked map of the city...with no explanation of the markings. Churches, I knew that much but just knowing that wasn't enough.
All Hallows-by-the-Tower. St Mary-le-Bow. St Botolph's Aldgate. St Dunstan-in-the-West. St Ethelurga's Bishopsgate. Temple Church. Southwark Cathedral. There were a few non-Christian places of worship. Baitul Aman Mosque. Radha Krishna Temple. Al-Birr. Lauderdale Road synagogue. These however were heavily outweighed by the churches, whatever the map meant it was pretty christiancentric.
Decoding whatever message Erek was trying to send me got tiresome quickly so when there was finally a knock at the door I was beyond ecstatic. As I opened the door I was...less so but I held my smile despite myself. "Kare! Oskar. May I just say, Kare that I would've like to know you were coming and especially that you were bringing company?"
"I told your stupid witchy housemaid," Kare hissed pushing past me to hang his coat. I stiffened slightly as Oskar entered and had to wonder why Kare had even brought him. Despite the siblings' struggles between each other they loved each other-begrudgingly at times. The same could not be said of their cousins. Even without all the stories Leif had told of Oskar in particular during their humanity, I'd witnessed enough from the man that made even me condemn him.
"She isn't my housemaid, sire." The sarcastic use of titles made Kare raise his eyebrows and step closer to me, an imitation threat. I smirked up at him, internally cursing my lack of height-and the borderline abnormal Family height. I barely came to his chest, though in that instance I was slightly glad as his silky suit told me I'd chosen the dress code for the event perfectly. Oskar, however, was not as dressed up as Kare nor as impressed by my lack of respect. Swinging my arms around Kare in an impromptu hug, I could practically feel the disgust rolling off of his nasty cousin. "And tell me next time."
"Do not tell me what to do you little wench." Despite his harsh tone, Kare had an easy smile across his face and begrudgingly patted my back. After a moment he seemed to decide that was far too much contact and peeled himself away before curiously wondering around the room.
"Witches aren't friends," Oskar piped in before looking directly at Kare. "Nor are they bedmates."
"No offense, Oskar but you'd say the same about me so I don't count your word so much." As I spoke, I glanced at the small selection of alcohol Victoria had arranged on the mantel. Vampires couldn't get drunk but it wouldn't hurt to try and warm them up a little before introducing them to witches, especially with Oskar's apparent disdain. "Have a drink, help yourselves."
"There's no need to be rude." Oskar said, stalking over to the table and grabbing a bottle of rum. He paused as he poured himself a glass, not extending Kare or I the offer nor showing any thanks for the little display. It was slightly petty for that to irritate me but it did. Oskar glanced at Kare as he took a sip and hummed appreciatively before speaking again. "He tried to kill you, you think that they adore you either? Even Leif-"
I opened my mouth to protest but before I could form an argument there was a shattering of glass and splatter of rum against Oskar's creamy jacket. Kare stepped between us when Oskar looked up from his bloody glass embedded hand. "You'll shut your mouth, cousin. I don't know what made your lot heartless beasts but over on our side we look out for family. Sine is family."
The rage melted from Oskar's face, a humourless laugh erupting from his throat though his eyes stared blankly ahead. I'd often heard it put that there were two 'types' of vampires, stretching back to the two families-the binary examples of what vampirism could be. I'd asked a witch to explain it to me once while I was still young and fresh, recently abandoned by my creators. One side was emotional and turbulent, she'd said, and the other was cold and impassive. Equally terrifying if you got on the wrong side of it. Still, it was a very witch-specific idea about our species and not one I expected Kare to share.
Besides if all the contempt in his voice was real, why bring Oskar along with him?
"The only difference between you and me, cousin, is that your lot are self-indulgent and insistent on keeping pets and bedmates with the subordinates." My anger at this point was getting too much. Not only was Oskar insulting his cousins but he was insulting me and all my shared blood...while standing in my home, shaking droplets of blood onto my newly stained expensive rug.
"You also live an extremely boring life." Kare cooed, apparently satisfied that no fight would occur. He grabbed the bottle of rum and poured it into the two remaining glasses on the table. He held one glass out to me and held his up for a toast. I clinked the glass with a raised eyebrow and he grinned. "To the self-indulgent and the subordinates."
We kept a lot of the expensive cutlery in the drawer next to the table the drinks were sitting upon. Usually there was an assortment of old-fashioned cloth napkins in the drawer as well though I couldn't be sure what would still be there. I turned the little iron key still sat in the keyhole from when Victoria had gone through preparations and was glad to see the silk material. Throwing the cloth to Oskar I relocked the door and gulped back as much rum as I could manage in one go. It was going to be a long night.
"Whatever, you invited us around for dinner, right? Well I would like to eat." I slurped down the rest of my drink as he spoke, internally cursing that I'd invited Kare around at all. Still, I was nothing if not a good hostess-I could never have the shame of bad hospitality brought down upon me-so I smiled as warmly as I could manage and ushered them to the dining room.
Entering the dining room felt like a homecoming. The nasty apartment while, I suppose, totally grand was not to my taste. It was a temporary abode at most-one Victoria had chosen-and, generally, it only served to make me miss my home in Mayfair all the more. The dining room however, with shimmering silverware and crockery laid out on a delicate white tablecloth was much more pleasing. The entire aesthetic seemed to please Kare too and while I had no idea how Oskar felt about it, I also didn't care.
Kare grinned at Victoria across the table and she, in turn, made a good show of being the perfect, demure, shy girl she'd be brought up to be. Autumn fiddled with her phone-texting her boring human friends, probably. That left me on Oskar watch. He barely joined in the scant conversation, just silently stared with a dark gleam in his eyes. A few times our eyes met and he smiled at me widely, the tips of his fangs sitting against his bottom lip.
The young maid Victoria had found stepped out from the hallway with a bottle of wine. A quick survey at the bottle proved it was one of my favourites. Not the kind of thing I'd usually waste on the likes of Oskar but it was what I got for letting Victoria of all people organise the evening. The girl was shaky on her feet and her eyes were filled with fear beneath the glazed blankness. Cursing Victoria's awful attempt at coercing the girl I beckoned for her to come over.
"Can you look at me, dear?" "Its okay-you're okay. I just need you to look at me, yeah? You are okay. You are just serving a dinner. You are safe. You are happy. You want to be here. You'll be a good girl-calm and quiet and then, maybe, you can leave and forget all of this." I let go of where I was holding her chin and smiled as sweetly as I could manage as she repeated my words softly. "Now, pour the wine would you, lovely? We have very important guests over and we don't want to keep them waiting."
She made her way about the table, pouring wine in silence. Kare looked her up and down appreciatively-all the Sigurdsson's were womanizing idiots-and Oskar licked his lips in an animalistic way that seemed dark even for a vampire. When she came to Autumn the young witch covered her glass with her hand glancing up and between everyone else at the table. "This is dreadful. You're monsters."
Kare laughed loudly-a very Leiflike laugh that had my stomach tightening up-raising his eyebrows at Autumn. She noticed that and gritted her teeth though I was more concerned about how Oskar's predatory gaze shifted in the exchange.
"Silly little human." Kare said and Autumn's eyes narrowed at him as if she was planning something. I grimaced; she couldn't be so stupid as to think she could actually take on a Family vampire, could she? "We are letting her leave after and she won't even remember-it's nothing."
"Maybe, she said, maybe."
"Yes, little lamb, because we might just want to snap her little neck and if you don't shut up-"
"That's enough now, Kare." I interjected, jumping from my seat. Oskar smiled again, a creepy spread of lips I caught in my peripheral vision. "She's a kid. She is literally just a kid. Leave her alone. Autumn just doesn't know any better. Autumn apologise."
Autumn seemed shocked at this but then swallowed hard and nodded. Relieved that all the tension had boiled over, I sat back down and took a sip of wine. I swirled the wine around my mouth for a moment to appreciate it and nearly chocked when Autumn stood, slammed her hands down on the table and stormed upstairs. My little splutter had caused a few droplets of the dark red to fall onto the expensive linen tablecloth. Hypothetically, vampirism should've prepared one for so many items getting stained over the years but, in my case at least, that was not so.
"Well, that was...odd. I did say not to keep company with witches-fickle things, aren't they?" Oskar swirled his glass around, watching the liquid spin. He made sure to punctuate his comment on witches with a glance at Victoria before returning to staring into the glass. "But we aren't here for that, are we? I don't want to be here any longer than necessary so let's just get straight down to business."