"Do you not like the clothes?" Jesse asked, his gentle blue eyes contrasting with the man he'd shown her thus far.

The man had been true to his word in the last week and not harmed her. At least in his opinion. They gave her some sick dark magic concoction that rejuvenated her blood faster, and Jesse had fed from her almost every night she'd been here. Drinking whatever they gave her almost always ended with her throwing the liquid up immediately, but by then, the magic had already sank into her.

It felt violating, but it was better than actually being violated. Jesse didn't touch her more than cradling her to him when he drank her blood, and he kept her constantly at his side. There was a lot going on in preparation for some sort of gathering, so he wasn't needed out on the border patrols.

Silvia looked down at her clothes and ran her fingers over the fabric. It was beautiful and she hated to say it. The top was snug but comfortable, hugging her chest in a cushion of cream fluff before meeting at her shoulders for the sleeves. They were translucent over her arms, but it was nice having her skin covered in the vampires' presence. It stopped the strange ones from eyeing her as much.

The skirt wrapped her above the knees in almost four layers of waves and it was so warm in this cold stone castle. Under all of it, he gave her cream pants that fit to her legs but covered her to her ankles so that no one would be looking at those either. It was considerate and much nicer than the clothes she'd been forced to wear while infiltrating as a blood slave in Angelus all that time ago. This was one among many outfits that Jesse had filled her wardrobe with. They shared a room, but he'd given her her own things.

This was starting to feel more like a vacation with all his pampering. She just started every day, or night rather, drinking death, and then the rest of it was tailing Jesse. She helped him with letters of correspondence, wrapping them with ribbon before he stamped them with his magic seal in wax, and then they moved on to walk through the gardens.

They did so every night, and she was pretty sure it was just for her because Jesse didn't do anything there. It wasn't something she was complaining about either. Mountainous terrain made for tiered gardens with short rock ledges and waterfalls that she sat happily next to for an hour sometimes, relaxing in the scratchier grass. Jesse, of course, offered her a blanket, but she liked to be connected with the fauna. It resonated with her magic and calmed her enough that she sometimes would stare at Jess as he sat next to her.

Completely calm, he watched things with her, his long black hair trailing on the wind and tickling his pleasantly tan skin. On occasion, his soft gaze met hers and the smallest of smiles curled his lips. It wasn't in hunger or satisfaction either. It seemed affectionate, and she often avoided his looks with a blush. If she was not head over heels for Neil, this man would have already caught her, hook, line, and sinker.

She tried to remember the way he'd been when she'd let him go, and it had been so much more animated and hostile. Since she'd arrived her, he'd done everything he could to make her comfortable. After their garden walks, he made sure that she got a good lunch of practically anything she wanted. Some human servants cooked for her, and he watched her eat like it fascinated him.

During the evening, they often talked with Tanya, like they were going to do now, but Jesse didn't always take her with him. Sometimes she sat in the room and waited. There wasn't much way for her to escape this complex, so she hadn't bothered even looking when she got time to herself. If she was going to slip away, it would have to be outside near the mage territory or somewhere else out of the Zahir's reach. For that, she had to act like she liked Jesse's treatment and convince him to take her out with him.

The worst part was that she didn't have to pretend. Some parts of Jesse were awkward, like the way he liked to hold her against him as he slept at her side after feeding, but he never touched her more than wrapping an arm around her back. She still wanted to escape, to go home to Neil and her father, but her initial fear and frustration had faded after a few days when she'd realized that Jesse intended to take care of her. Usually when a vampire said they were going to take good care of someone, that was not what they meant, but with Jesse, it was.

The man hadn't even grown impatient that she wouldn't sleep with him or that she insisted every day that she had a mate and wasn't going to fall for him. All he did was smile or laugh and say he was patient. This guy would make any blood slave swoon, though she was pretty sure his treatment of her was special because she'd saved his life. The man treated the other blood slaves more commandingly, though still not cruelly.

"Jesse." The instant Silvia said his name, his expression brightened, and she didn't know how to respond to that sort of affection. "Why are you being this kind to me?"

"What do you mean? Is repaying the debt of my life not reason enough?" Jesse asked, checking his hair in the mirror before he ushered her to the door. They were meeting Tanya and Jesse wanted her to look good and acclimated to vampire servitude, as Jesse had put it nicely.

"Well, you're being awfully doting just for that. I'm an infiltrator class mage, and you could..."

"Torture you for information?" Jesse smirked, and she frowned as they walked down the corridor. "You couldn't give me much," Jesse said after a moment of thought. "I know all of the infiltrators stationed at the complex, and you are new, green, and have an interesting disposition toward my kind."

"What do you mean by interesting?" Silvia asked, tucking her hands into her dress as he veered closer.

"You use my name for one, and don't call me some vicious beast." Jesse chuckled, and he had a really cute smile with his fangs just peeking past his teeth.

The man had a different sort of face than Neil or Ares. Neil was younger, sweeter, and easily excitable, whereas Ares was kind, but serious and diplomatic. Jesse had a calm demeanor, very collected and intelligent, and he seemed gentle. The man was a Zehir general though, so he regularly bloodied his hands with mages. Still, she didn't feel like he was faking anything.

"I could just be going along with it so that Tanya doesn't kill me," Silvia said, and Jesse reached out and pat her head. She blushed again, and his eyes were so soft when he looked at her. Why?

"You're not," Jesse answered firmly. "Infiltrators hate vampires. We are beasts, depraved, and frightening. None I know would allow me touch them without fear, regardless of how I treated them. You, however, seem so at home here that it's frightening to me." Jesse cranked an eyebrow with a question that she couldn't answer for him.

She was used to being around vampires. After Neil, Ares, and Idus had welcomed her, she'd started to understand that not all vampires were out to kill mages. Then while infiltrating Angelus, she'd gotten to know Lorenzo de Fleur and his general, Asmodeus, and they were genuinely interested in integration of mages and vampires into a world where they could both thrive. They had weakened any doubts she'd had about vampires, so now if one was kind to her, she was easily swayed.

Kopje had already had to save her when she believed one too many liars on the Zehir borders. It wasn't like they asked her to join them for candy and she went along, but when one pleaded for its life and swore they didn't want to fight, she caved. Then they struck for her throat.

The Zehirs were confusing.

"Well," Silvia said, rubbing her hands together. "It is nice not to worry about some vampire doing me in, and I don't like killing anyone, vampires included. When I'm here, I can relax and I don't have to wonder whose life I might take at any given moment."

"You're too kind to be an infiltrator," Jesse said, his smile falling for a frown. It was one Kopje gave her all the time. Pity mixed with concern.

"I am." Silvia couldn't argue.

"Jesse," the snap of Tanya's voice yanked her out of her relaxation, and she tucked herself into Jesse's side. The movement drew Tanya's dark eyes and the house head looked to Jesse with just as much confusion as he'd expressed. "She sure is comfy, isn't she?"

"Yes, quite." Jesse smiled to Tanya, but it was stiffer than the ones he gave to her. Did Jesse not like her? "Silvia did not like being an infiltrator and she has come to enjoy being pampered. I am not stingy about repaying blood debts and she lies under my fangs willingly, so I like to give things to her as long as she serves me."

"If didn't know you better, I'd say you're too attached. Come, we have things to discuss. You are bringing her, I suppose?"

"Is that all right?" Jesse asked politely, and Tanya shrugged.

"We are talking about vampires, and since she's a mage, I doubt she'll be spilling our secrets, even on the snowball's chance in hell she got away from here." Tanya laced threat in all of the last words, but Silvia followed Jesse and kept her eyes firmly on his shoulder as they moved into the drawing room.

Tanya plopped her half-dressed ass on a huge couch, and her boobs jiggled as she landed, her indigo hair glowing in the dim lights around her dark skin. Vampires had more grace than that, so she imagined it was intentional on the vampiress' part. The way Tanya's eyes followed her as Jesse sat her down on a couch next to him gave Silvia the distinct impression that she was jealous. Maybe it was more possessive, since Tanya was Jesse's master. Silvia squeaked unintentionally when Jesse pulled her tighter to his side. As he settled back into the couch, he leaned in and inhaled her scent with a groan.

Like Tanya wasn't boring daggers into her skull already.

"Is this about the Arcs?" Jesse asked, and Silvia couldn't avoid the twitch that drew both of their eyes to her. "Are you familiar with them, Silvia?" Jesse asked, and she internally cursed herself for losing all her composure training just from being flustered by Jesse's touch and the sounds that escaped his lips.

"They share a border with the Copses," she said, knowing that vampires could sense lies. It was always best to lie with the truth. "My people don't go exploring in their territory, but they're said to be a little... unstable." That much was true. The Arcs had a terrible reputation for being vicious and a habit for ending things that got in their way. Neil also hadn't had complete control of his vampire urges the last time she'd been with him.

"Yes," Tanya spat her distaste all in one word. "After the unity gathering, they need to be dealt with. "Their northern borders are most guarded due to the Charge territory and mage presence, and we have no access to their east border. It used to be filled with the Lances, but Talamayas took over that land when they fell. I'd ask him to use the border as an entry point, but he'd decline. The man is committed to remaining uninvolved in outside scuffles. If we had something concrete to accuse Neil Arc of, he'd allow it. The man is also a stickler for vampire law."

"Yes, the Sols are isolated in the desert as a house, but Talamayas also has no tolerance for those who turn on their own," Jesse said. "The unity gathering provides us with a unique opportunity to sway him into joining the northern coalition. After all, he is a northern house."

Silvia breathed evenly, in and out, against Jesse's chest, inhaling the scent of pines and summer air that clung to his clothes. She'd closed her eyes as soon as they'd started talking to calm herself, and she was now just absorbing what they said without reacting. If she gave herself away, she was dead.

Talamayas would never turn on Neil, not with the way he'd given up what was most precious to him just to save her. The man had also melted her insides with little thought, so she knew the man could be goaded. What if Neil didn't know that Talamayas had burned her still and it drew a rift between them? The Zehirs might exploit their distance, and she couldn't say how far Talamayas' loyalties would go if Neil rejected him. She hadn't gotten time to talk to Neil about what had happened between them.

"It's best we surveil both Talamayas and Neil Arc at the unity gathering," Jesse said, combing his hand through his hair as they talked. "It's been years since Neil Arc has shown himself, and we would be fools to attack them without gaining intelligence. It isn't like we could try anyway so close to the unity gathering. Talamayas would have our heads on pikes if we shed vampire blood before a gathering of unity."

"Talamayas is strict to our laws and customs but he is also fair. The Arcs are off their leash and tearing apart their own kind. The council will support their eradication and then we won't have any issues in invading them."

"You guys have a council?" Silvia couldn't stop her curiosity, and Tanya hissed at her. She stuffed herself into the crook between the couch and Jesse's body, and he hugged her to him eagerly.

"Tanya, calm yourself. The council is well known among the mage generals. It's not like she's asking for any information she couldn't normally get on her own." Jesse rubbed his hand over her hair, and she blushed again from how plastered to his body she was. That was safest though. "The council is a group of our most venerated vampires who vote on issues of greater importance that are bigger than one vampire territory. They are separate from the house heads but far more experienced and powerful than them as well. Distancing themselves from any one house gives them a more unbiased opinion of our affairs."

"I see. We have heads of areas but nothing that's as organized as that. We have a higher order, but I'm not sure unbiased is the word for them." It seemed safe to share with Jesse and his creepy master since it was common knowledge. The more open she was, the more they would feel she was settling in here too, which was what Jesse wanted Tanya to see.

"The humans are poorly organized, that is for sure," Tanya said with a cruel curl of her lips, and then they continued with the conversation of how to kill the man she loved and his whole house.

Listening to all of it had her tired, and by the time Jesse took her back to their room, she wasn't sure she was up to sitting under his fangs. Kind or not, he would be used as a tool by Tanya to orchestrate her mate's downfall, and she shouldn't be just giving herself to him. If she didn't' though, he would get suspicious or less giving as he put it.

"Come, Silvia," Jesse said after he'd removed his shirt and slid into the bed.

She had removed her layers of satin and silk and replaced it with gown to sleep in. Jesse had provided her with a multitude of sleepwear, and some of it was just not modest. This was what she had settled on, not coming off as too reserved or too revealing. Just a sleek shift that defined her body's curves but kept it all covered save her arms, neck and ankles.

As she sat on the bed and slid the covers over her, she couldn't keep her eyes off his bare chest. The man had initially kept his shirt on, but had sank back into the comfort of sleeping without one. From his pecs down to near his groin, his muscles were built and defined, a silent threat every time she was in his arms.

"You're upset," Jesse said as he closed the distance between them and pulled her against his chest. The sheer fabric of her gown did nothing to block the chill from his bare skin against her upper body. "I can skip a night of feeding if it will make you feel better, but it is not something I will often repeat."

Curse him and his insistence on being kind to her. Tears lined her eyes, and she stuffed her face into the pillow. Why couldn't he just be a heartless monster who forced her into his bed and stole her blood while she struggled? At least that way she could hate him. The way he was so gentle with her was breaking her heart when she knew he would be opposite of Neil on a battlefield.

"Sweet Silvia, I know all this change is upsetting for you," Jesse whispered into her ear as he held her and ran his hand over her hair. "It's okay if you want to cry. I will not scold you. I actually expected you to do so sooner, but you've been so calm here that I was wondering if you were really okay."

"I'm not crying because I'm upset about all this," Silvia mumbled as she turned to face him. She met his blue eyes, and a growl of hunger slipped from his throat. His fangs lengthened, but he settled on kissing her forehead. "I'm upset because you're kind and I don't hate you. Why can't you just be a bad guy and make this easier?"

"It would be easier if I accosted you every night?" Jesse asked with a growing smile, and she punched herself internally again. How could he know that she was worried about him being her enemy when he came for Neil? "I'm not good at accosting women, but I can try."

Silvia swallowed her tongue as he slid a hand down her side, enjoying the feel of his skin just beyond the fabric under his fingers. Following the dip on her side, he trailed the valley of her waist before climbing up her hip and resting it there. This wasn't what she meant dammit. Losing his remaining hand in her hair, he lowered his lips to her, but he passed her face to lay a kiss on the bottom of her chin. She reddened as he lifted it to trailed kisses all down her neck until he rested on her collar bone. There, the prick of his fangs on her skin startled her so badly that she jerked back.

And he let her go.

Like he always did.

A foot from him on her bed, she looked back at the glow of his blue eyes in the darkness. Just beyond her, the sun would rise soon, but the shades in here were thick enough to block out all light. That left her with him in darkness, day or night, and even then, he never turned into a dark creature like he was. Jesse was always a man, a considerate person who cared and treated her right.

How could this be her enemy?

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Word Count: 3342