Vampire Nightlife

'Huh, she's from the Durand House. You really don't always pay attention do you?' Lukas mused.

Drusilla stuck in her blood world paused at those words. She had heard the name before and if only Lukas could have seen the expression on her face then he would have understood what was going through her head right now.

"Go out now." Drusilla snapped.

'What? No way.' Lukas said with a frown. 'I'm here to become a hunter!'

"—And you won't be a hunter if you're speaking every single minute!" Iolathane swerved towards Lukas and met his gaze heavily. "Silence is necessary when hunting as to not alert your targets, alright?"

"Huh? Why is the resource speaker looking at that guy? Did you guys hear anything?"

"No. I haven't. Is she drunk?"

"Ooh, if she's drunk can we report her or something? Get extra merits for that."

"Maybe she's just making a point, I dunno."

"Hah, how long do we have to sit through this entire thing?"

Iolathane heard everyone's mutterings clearly underneath their breath, some were even speaking normally as if their voices couldn't interrupt something important.

Her eye twitched and she glanced at Lukas' direction once again.

"If people are unhappy with how things are going on for this particular workshop then you're all free to leave and maybe return when the next speaker comes. Duncan of the Durand House will be taking on professional security jobs next." Iolathane said.

Lukas remembered that it was the exact guy that he and Chaerin met when they were dealing with Elias. It was actually a surprise that the guy would show himself again.

It meant that he was the real deal kind of guy.

"Doing security work doesn't seem so bad." Lukas muttered. Until he remembered that it would take maybe several hours in a day and frankly—Lukas didn't have time for that.

Lukas wanted to make money sure, but he also didn't want it to get in the way of him spending time with Chaerin where it mattered the most. And definitely the other things that he had going on with him! Ah, he couldn't forget about that!

When did Lukas get so wrapped up in what other people were doing? This wasn't quite like him.

"Hey, I told you to go out!" Drusilla said.

Something burned and pricked inside of him, like one giant scalding needle poking its way inside of him if that made any sense.

And for the first time since Lukas got the Sanguise House dagger—he realized where the dagger was mostly kept when it wasn't in use. It was in his own very blood. The same coursing liquid that kept him alive and together, the dagger had made its home there.

"Uh, emergency!" Lukas shot up from his seat and quickly made his way out of the room, almost stumbling his way out of there.

He steadied himself against the wall once he reached outside, catching some look from passerby people inside the building.

Some took one look at the workshop happening inside and shook their heads in sympathy. It was well known that Iolathane mostly frightened and discouraged individuals from becoming hunters so that was that.

They saw Lukas as someone who couldn't take Iolathane's words.

On the contrary, Lukas squeezed his eyes shut and tried to concentrate on something else besides the throbbing going on his body. Everything was pulsing hard. As if something wanted to go out of him—seize his body for their own control.

And this time, Lukas remembered why other creatures were considered monsters. Why Vampires were monsters. Not to say that humans couldn't be monsters, but the manifestation of Drusilla's will was nothing but agony on Lukas' body and psyche.

He gritted his teeth and tried not to lurch at the swirling and contemptuous sensation inside of him. Gods, he was feeling so sick and there was one person behind it all.

"Drusilla…" Lukas warned.

"You've finally come out? Good. Good." Drusilla's voice tried to relax, but there was still an arch of slight panic in them. Almost as if she was also not in control of her own self at the moment.

Lukas wanted to stay mad, but curiousness latched itself onto him.

This beast and monster of a Vampire suddenly showed an ounce of uncomfortable vulnerability. What was happening and how was it connected to the Durand House?

"So what's up…? You kind of put me at odds with the speaker back then." Lukas muttered with a slightly winced grin. The pain was receding but it was still there and it reminded Lukas that he truly was dealing with something bigger than him. He had grown too relaxed about how things were happening.

"Is that really valuable right now? That woman… why is she speaking instead of being placed with tutelage with the dwarves?"

"Sorry, dwarves?" Lukas thought he heard almost wrong, but then he'd just met other races before so this shouldn't have come out of as a surprise.

"Yes. The Durand House are people who belong in the background and not the center of things. Why has things changed so much?" Drusilla said.

Lukas found the world around him spinning, almost a reflection of the same thing happening inside of Drusilla's world.

The blood beneath her feet didn't only rippled—it was shaking, the perfect still world now finding itself facing its own troubles.

"Change happens. You got to understand that, Sanguise House Ancestor." Lukas tried to speak calmly, but it only came out in a small wheeze.

"Not when… not when my freedom lies in their hands." Drusilla whispered.

"What?" Lukas blinked and snapped back to attention.

The momentary shock caused enough to make his body recover from Drusilla's effects, and Lukas quickly held onto that feeling and didn't let go.

He learned how to fight against Charm and increased the Fortitude of his Mind with Rhea, and now he found himself fighting against internal attacks on his own body. It was a different process altogether, as he tried not to slip.

"Drusilla, what do you mean?" Lukas asked again.