"Talamayas Sol, you have no right to touch my mate." Rush growled low. "You break the law of territory by merely being here without approval."

"I have broken no laws," Talamayas responded coolly. "I observed all required formalities upon encountering your mate and asked if I was allowed to remain here. Do you not respect your mate's power to permit me to stay? I asked, and she approved."

Rush turned back to her, and she stiffened. Well, she had told him it was okay to be here, but she hadn't realized that her own words carried with it law. They so had to give her a handbook for this "mate" thing.

"Permit me an audience with your house head and heirs, and I will be on my way."

"I will permit it," Darius said with a low growl. "We aren't in position to refuse with current issues. Please join me in the drawing room. My heir and his mate need a moment to calm in order to observe the formalities."

"As you request." Talamayas was polite, but he didn't bow his head to Darius as he had her.

Did that mean Talamayas respected her more, or perhaps bowing wasn't required if she'd already accepted him? This was why someone needed to write out these rules. Darius led Talamayas into the castle at their vampire speed, and it left her alone with Rush.

"Meredith!" Rush said as soon as he was gone, clutching her shoulders and pulling her forward. "Never remain alone with an enemy house representative. Call me. Had you even thought that you needed for protection, it would have woken me. With how Talamayas had his energy suppressed, I only sensed him the moment foreign magic grazed that of my mate."

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to start anything, and Talamayas said he was just here to speak with you. It wasn't like he grabbed me or anything, just brushed a finger against the side of my face."

Rush's growl rolled though him, and she frowned as he full on snarled. "I haven't the time to explain everything to you right now, but no vampire can touch another's mate without permission, friend or foe, and I know you didn't give it to him. With the exception of a vampire protecting you from mortal harm, it is not allowed within this society."

"I didn't know," Mer said, bowing her head, but Rush pulled her into his chest and smothered her in an embrace that shook with him as he inhaled her scent.

"Talamayas did. We need to get to the drawing room with my father. I do not like him alone with that man, and I doubt Talamayas is here for anything positive. Come."

Rush whisked her off her feet and she was in a dim room adorned in blacks and reds in an instant. The walls were covered in deep mauve tapestries bordered and detailed in pitch and crimsons, and each wall was lined with old tomes, all black-spined with red over-stitching. It really didn't vary in here, it seemed. Mer sat next to Rush in two comfortable chairs, but she couldn't be more uncomfortable as they faced Talamayas Sol and his two armed guards that had materialized.

The men he had with him were enormous, but they were lycanthropes without a doubt. With smooth skin twice as dark as Talamayas' they disappeared into the dim lights in the corner, but they were loyal to the man. It was well known that the Shades had access to nothings through Caelan and Paul, so the man had come prepared.

"What is it we can do for you, Talamayas?" Darius asked, front and center, directly across from Talamayas' seat where the Sol leader leaned on his hand with an amused smile. It looked deranged on his face, which she doubted Darius or Rush had missed.

"You know why I'm here," Talamayas said, tapping his fingers on his cheek in a slow roll that had Mer swallowing uncomfortably.

This man was a complete enigma. During the fights, he'd overpowered Darius with ease and backhanded poor Neil into unconsciousness. The same man had also saved her from an uncomfortable position at the unity gathering and had seemed friendly, mischievous for sure, but not brutal. That had been before she'd seen him snap at Neil, and she didn't know what she was supposed to think. People with complicated motives and emotions confused her when her only reference point was Rush's collected and straightforward nature.

"For sake of clarity, let's assume I don't know why you're here," Darius responded in a tight tone that showed his impatience.

"Because you're a wishy washy piece of shit, Darius," Talamayas said with a cackle that echoed in the silent room. Mer wouldn't be surprised if the books had shaken in the shelves behind him. "Whose side are you on?" Talamayas asked directly.

Mer clutched Rush's arm, and she was surprised when he slipped his hand into hers and gripped it firmly. The action didn't go unnoticed, and Talamayas' eyes shifted to them for a moment before returning to Darius.

"Are you my ally or enemy, Darius Shade?" Talamayas asked, removing his head from his hand and leaning forward as he laced his hands together and tucked them under his chin.

"I haven't the faintest, Talmayas Sol," Darius answered.

Talamayas' eyes narrowed, and his smug smile flipped to a scowl.

"I am wishy-washy, Talamayas," Darius continued. "I'm old, tired, and was never well suited to confrontation and war. As such, I'd chosen some time ago to pass my leadership to my son once he'd taken a mate."

Rush squeezed her hand, and his eyebrows rose in the barest of expressions that she knew was surprise. It seemed that Darius hadn't told him anything about this decision, and with all the crap Darius had given Rush over the past two years about her, she was astonished that he believed Rush capable of holding the reigns.

"You think that wise right now?" Talamayas asked, leaning back in his chair with contemplation.

"Yes," Darius said with a tepid smile. "I know myself and I will make the wrong choice. This is something that Remus is better suited to. You will need to direct your inquiries to him."

"I see." Talamayas titled his head, and Mer was pretty sure she was losing feeling to her fingers. "Remus Shade, will I be crushing you or fighting by your side?" There was no in-between for this man. Either Rush was with them or against them.

"I can't very well say that unless I know whose side you're on, Talamayas," Rush said carefully, and the man's smirk returned in full force.

"Very well then, are you siding with the Arcs or not?" Talamayas shifted the question.

Rush removed his hand from hers, and she accepted her fingers back gladly, tingling as blood returned to them. Rush's green eyes darkened as she looked to him for the decision he was about to make. His eyebrows crunched lower, but the rest of him was as stoic and still as ever.

"You are powerful, Talamayas, and fighting your house is not something that my father would ever commit to. It's suicide, if I'm blunt about the reality. That being said, the Shades are an old and powerful house, nothing to sneer at even if the Sols are our superiors one on one. I won't have us go out as cowards who sided with the stronger side just to survive."

Mer's heart fluttered on those words, loving that he wasn't going to turn on Neil, but it also sank terror into her of what it would be like opposite of Talamayas Sol in a real fight.

"The Shades will honor their age old alliance with the Arcs and fight alongside them, no matter what hell it rains down on us. If I am going to perish, it will be with dignity and in a way that I feel is right, for both my allies and the legacy of my people."

"Then the Shades approve of Neil Arc's actions? Slaughtering his father's legacy after your mate killed him with cheap nothing tricks? Regicide, patricide, and mass murder without a blood debt to even lean on for such atrocities."

"It's interesting how everyone is suddenly acting like Vincent wasn't an out of control monster when it suits them."

"Vincent was a monster, but he adhered to our laws as far as Neil Arc is concerned. Had you ended him, it would be no issue. Since Vincent broke the law and attacked your house using an Angelus mage, you had the right. Neil did not, and from what I hear, Meredith Aurion ended him with the help of Neil and Darc Aurion. That man is like a slow poison, seeping into the Arc house under subterfuge and ripping the Arc's feet out from under them.

"That is what you want to side with, Remus Shade? The Shades and the Aurions regularly clash on their borders in the battlegrounds, and I know that Darc ended many of you kind in his days as a mage. Do you have no obligation to your people to end him?"

"Darc Aurion is dead," Rush said with a conviction that ran over every scuffle he'd ever had with her father. It took a lot for him to say that and mean it, and she wished she could hug him right now. "Damien Arc has been loyal to Neil, regardless of what he did, when he did it, or what his motivations were. If the man was a mage, he would not have. Neither of us are thrilled with a previous battleground mage on our side, but he is no longer who he once was. Damien Arc echoes the pride of the Arcs, just as Neil always has, and I will support a house that has dignity left."

"Are you implying I have no dignity, Remus shade?"

"Yes," Rush snapped before Talamayas had even finished laughing, and the Sol leader let out a low growl. "You don't interfere, Talamayas, isn't that right? You pride yourself in staying out of scuffles unless they directly affect you or the justice of vampire law that you uphold. Neil has done nothing to affect you or any of the northern vampires. Anything he has done in the east or southern sectors has only improved the quality of life for the vampire houses. Yet, you scurry out from under your rock to jump on him like some ravenous caged animal that will take any flesh to satisfy its hunger."

Talamayas moved faster than Mer could follow, and she pressed to the opposite side of her chair as Talamayas got in Rush's face. One hand on either side of Rush's head, Talamayas gripped the chair and leaned in close enough to breathe a snarl on him. It would have had her quaking in her boots if she were wearing any.

Rush didn't move. No fear crossed his features, and he remained still.

"Say that again!" Talamayas rasped as the side of the chair ignited under Talamayas' hands.

"Are you hard of hearing?" Rush asked coolly, as if flames were not licking the sides of his face.

Talamayas grabbed Rush's collar, flames still snaking around his fingers and pulled him to his face. "Remus Shade, I relish seeing you on the battlefield." The force with which Talamayas shoved him away moved the chair back a foot, and Talamayas turned on them to head out the door. A rough laugh escaped one of the Lycanthrope's mouths as they trailed him.

"You shouldn't have done that," Darius said after minutes of silence, likely waiting until Talamayas had left their territory.

"It was imperative that I did, Darius," Rush said, a long sigh escaping him as he slumped in the chair. "The man was trying to see if I'd turn on Neil, and I needed to make it clear to him that we stand together or not at all."

"Yes, I understand, but calling the man an animal will bring Talamayas' army down on you in full force. You needn't have made the Shades a target before the fight had started."

"What should I have done, Darius? Been happy they were killing my allies first? That is no better than the cowardice of siding with him. We are in this now, and if Talamayas comes for one of us, he comes for all of us."

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Word Count: 2068