Shimmer |✓|

//Sacrifice// Part 2

In the Council chamber, a severe-looking woman with wavy, midnight hair and slanted eyes that were startlingly blue was the center of the study.

She approached Tidus with a scotch, neat. He accepted, but didn't drink. No glass was offered to me. Neither was the woman's frigid, calculating gaze. "Come-now, Tidus, was the bloodshed really necessary? Just because we had dinner with you, that doesn't give you any sort of lee-way."

Tidus had warned me these Vampires were old and precocious. Though newly elected, they ruled the Reverent with absolute authority, heedless of Tidus' title as Prince of Vampires. The legacy Dracula had left behind was crumbling, fading with the memory of a monarchy past recollection.

Tonight, we would remind them.

"My apologies for the mess, Selena." Tidus' smile was deceptively pleasant. "You're right. Juggling those hearts was completely inappropriate--I assure you, it will never happen again."

The man by the window chuckled deeply, but his gaze never shifted from the night. The most I could make of his profile was his bloodied tuxedo and a long waves of white-blonde hair that Fabio would've envied.

"And did you bring us the puppy... for playing with?" This voice was light and airy--the high-pitched inflection of a child. From the shadows stepped a girl who couldn't have been more than six or seven. Brown, doll-like curls spilled past her shoulders, touching cheeks that had long lost their rosiness. Her eyes and skin were gray in the dim light, further blanched by her jet-colored attire-black turtle neck, black overalls, black-and-white saddle shoes. Clutched between her hands was a ratty old teddy bear.

"She's not a puppy, Isabelle. And we're not here to play."

"Oh?" Her disappointment in Tidus was far from child-like. It was carnal. "Then why? I thought you agreed to let us kill you for your... transgressions. Have you reneged on the arrangement?"

Tidus glanced at me. I cut him off before he could speak.

"Yes. He has reneged. It's not fair to kill him for your mistakes." Silence fell as every Vampire in the room handed me their undivided, cold-blooded attention. "You turned a blind eye as the Rabid nearly destroyed The Village--a town that belongs to everyone, Humans included. You were being lazy--"

"Actually, we were being drunk--the whole time. Ve-ry, ve-ry drunk." Fabio had yet to turn from the window. His voice was a slow, even drawl, his words smooth as honey. "Besides, we have information it was the Witches who created the Rabid. So, I believe that would've made it their mess to clean. I wonder, has anyone stopped to consider why those daft Witches didn't feel the need?"

"Isn't it obvious?" At the rear of the room, Isabelle took a seat behind a magnificent oaken desk that nearly swallowed her. "They needed a reason to end the alliance. The Rabid are their... smoking gun." Isabelle peered at me from narrow eyes, her small chin nestled between the ears of her teddy bear.

"Either way, you can't kill Tidus. Me either. The bounty on my head--you're gonna wanna call that off." I lifted my own chin in turn, staring hotly back at Isobelle. "Catherine is coming for you--all of you. If you plan on surviving the Witches, then you're gonna need us alive, sweetheart."

Selena laughed. "That's rich. I don't believe we need either of you. The Revenant will destroy the Leader of the Red Hand--without your help." She took a slow sip of her scotch.

"Awww, Selena. You've upset the puppy--"

"Alright, Isobelle, with all due respect, that's the last time you call me that--"