There is a suffocating silence that sets over the room as every syllable leaves Sebastian's lips. There is nothing but pure horror hidden all over his pale face, even if every part of him protests internally with himself, he knows that he has to present me to them. The Vampire Council, a collection of Vampires chosen by Sebastian himself, widely feared and known to hand the most severe punishments down on those whom break the Vampire code.

This is what Edward has told me, whether it is true, that I shall find out for myself come tomorrow night. As for now, I am being sent to my room much like a naughty child to think about my actions. In all my living years I have never felt so scared, I do wish that I had listened to Sebastian. My own selfishness drove me to do the unthinkable, kill another out of pure recklessness. I would love to tell myself that I was only thinking of Eva's best interest, where in fact I was only thinking of myself.

And now I have the whole of eternity to punish myself for my actions. But the question begs, what shall The Council do with me. I have heard that they will pull your fangs and let you starve to death. Now that is something to look forward to, but will Sebastian allow such a thing to happen to me? If only he would listen and speak to me then I shall know. For the how many of time now, I try to draw his attention to me.

"Sebastian?"

"Anastasia I thought I have instructed you to go to your room?"

"I don't want to be alone."

"You should have considered that before you disobeyed my direct order."

"But..."

"Anastasia please do as I ask, you do not want to infuriate me more than I already am."

"But why must I see The Council?"

"You deliberately ignored my instructions to not mark Eva and in return you have brought her on the brink of death."

"But you did the same to me?"

"Yes and for that I shall stand my own council. Now please do as I have asked you, go to your room."

All I can do is but grind my teeth and glare at him for if I have to say another word to him, I shall stand two councils tomorrow night. So I turn on my heels instead and stomp my way upstairs to my room.

But to get to my room, I need to pass those of Eva's. As I slowly creep past, I can hear a scuffle inside. At first I am overwhelmed by a crippling fear inside, Eva can possibly not still be alive, can she? There is no way, for there was way too much blood for her to have survived. It is probably Rosemary still cleaning up inside.

But there is that part of me that is filled with curiosity that needs to know. So I move through the shadows and sneak up to the door. Ever so softly and slowly I reach out for the knob to twist it open, when all of a sudden there is a deep voice rumbling behind me. By the anger and coldness, I know exactly who it is.

"Are you even considering to disobey me again? Did I not clearly forbid you not to come here?"

"I was, I just wanted..."

"To see the corpse of the woman you killed. It was your friend Anastasia or have you forgotten that?"

"Believe me Sebastian I know, but being this goddam bloodlust animal I am, I am finding it hard to feel remorse."

"Well do us both the favor and go find the remorse in your own room. I am not repeating myself again. Stay away from this room!"

"Ugh!"

Much to his annoyance I bare my fangs and snap at him. He might be my Maker, but I am not his child for him to talk to me this way. He might be the oldest Vampire, but he surely acts like a spoiled brat.

...Sebastian...

She is absolutely driving me up against the wall. I do so much want to show her leniency, but I am afraid that it will only show The Council that I am weak. It would have sat far better with me if we could hidden this and never had to tell a single soul. However, apart from Edward and Lilith, I have a house full of servants that are bound by the code to report very such things like these. Even though I might have assembled The Council, it does not make me immune to the rules of the code.

As for her punishment, that I have no control over either, I have the power to overrule a sentence, but in doing so I shall only be seen to show her favour over other Vampires. This goes against the very purpose of the assembly of The Council, to treat all Vampires equally. I so wish that she only obeyed me, and then not even an hour later she wants to disobey me again. My love for Anastasia runs deeply, but it cannot cloud what is morally acceptable in the Vampire world.

She shall not show remorse as the craving to feed makes her actions seem acceptable. But this was her friend, if she was a far more experienced Vampire, she would not even have attempted such a foolish thing. In a way that is my own fault, I have craved her so much that I failed to teach her as one should teach a young Vampire. But there is no time to dwell on the wrongs that she did, I can only but now work at correction the mistake she made.

I have called for Edward to meet me in Eva's room.

"Edward, I cannot express enough that you are taking a risk here, for once it is done then it is set in stone. We are once again taking matters in our hands and I fear The Council will hand down severe punishment on us."

"Sebastian my heart has just grown as fond for Anastasia. I do not wish to see her live in regret for eternity."

"Then it is decided, we shall do this and I shall take the punishment for our actions."

"I will not allow you to do such a thing. This is my actions which I have chosen to do for myself."

"Fair enough, the let us begin."

...Edward...

I have been known to do the craziest things, usually acting on impulse and not making logical decisions. But this shall be by far the most irresponsible thing, even if you may refer to it in such a way. I have seen and experienced regret for over two hundred years, for an old Vampire it is easy to live with for eternity. But for such a youngling as Anastasia it shall only imprint a very bad memory right from the start of her immortal life. I do not wish for her to experience that.

That brings us to this moment. In front of me lays a woman that's beauty is beyond compare. She is laying here in nothing but the most exquisite pink lingerie, that is sadly stained with the deepest red of her own blood. Her long brown hair lays next to her in waves and behind those eyelids is the deepest colour of brown eyes. Her skin has gone two shades lighter than pale and her body is near ice cold to the touch. She is busy dying a slow and painful death.

I am not one that stays tied down to just one woman, but for Anastasia I am willing to take this risk. Therefor I shall make my intention very clear to Eva before I shall do this.

"My dear Eva, I know the pain is unbearable to you know, but I need to speak to you before it becomes too late. Please nod if you understand what I say."

I hear a painful mumble escape her lips as she attempts to answer me. Feeling much defeated, she just nods her head, I can see the agony she experiences by only doing this.

"You do know that you are slowly busy dying."

She only nods her head.

"I am offering you the opportunity to come through this."

She slowly opens her eyes and looks at me in horror. She knows fully what I am suggesting to her. From somewhere deep inside her, she finds the voice to speak.

"Are you saying I must become a Vampire if I wish to live?"

"I am afraid my dear Eva it is the only way you are going to fight this."

I hear as she starts to rumble, the clear look of anger is written over her face.

"But I did not ask for this! You people just go around killing humans and then accept that we all want to become the horrible creatures that you are."

"I am afraid that I cannot answer for Anastasia, I can only offer you life again. I need to know if this is something you wish to do?"

I watch her as she keeps her silence once again. There is this desire for all mortals to live. Nobody wishes to die, especially by the hands of another and in her case it is her friend and a friend that is unfortunately a Vampire too. This is an inner battle that she is fighting with herself.

"Of course I do want to live, but it shall not change the fact that I shall not forgive Anastasia for this."

"I am not expecting you to do, but what I should make clear is that you shall have a bond with me."

"I do not wish to be tied down to you, but I fully understand that this shall happen. So can we just get this over with?"

I slightly pierce the soft skin of my wrist with the tips of my fangs, instantly the droplets of blood appears. Without even flinching she grabs for my arm, I feel as her baby fangs drive into my skin inch by glorious inch. She nestles them deeper into the delicate flesh and in an instant I can feel the blood drain from me. She eagerly sucks and drink from me while holding my arm deadly still.

The feeling is beyond what words can even describe, I have not had another Vampire drink from me in over a hundred years. The sensations my body feels is far greater than sex with any mortal woman. My entire body tingles from pleasure and it is intoxicating. I know that this is now a feeling I am going to get addicted to. So much that I even allow her to drink more than she should.

"My dear Eva, you need to stop."

After protesting for a few seconds too long, she finally pulls away and falls back into the sheets. I look up at Sebastian that has been next to me the whole time.

"I shall stay with her until the process is done."

"Thank you Edward, you are truly a good friend."

...Anastasia...

I have been stuck in my room for almost a day, not once have I seen Sebastian since yesterday. It pained me to be away from him so long and I know it must have pained him just as much as well. It is only but mere minutes that I need to appear in front of the council. To say that I am not terrified would be a lie, I just wish that Sebastian would stand by my side. I know that he is also standing punishment for his own actions tonight, I just don't understand why we cannot do this together.

And the as if on clockwork he knocks on my door.

"Anastasia it is time to go."

"Sebastian please can you just give me some support."

"Believe me that I have already done so, in fact Edward has done it even more so."

"What do you mean Edward?"

"Please can you come so we can get this over with? The Council does not take kindly to being late."

"But can we just talk for a minute?"

"We can do that in the car, now please will you come?"

I know it is futile to even protest. I try to take his hand as we leave the room, but he only pulls it away. He cannot possibly be so angry still, it appears that he might just do so for eternity.

It is with a heavy heart that I once again pass Eva's room, but this time the door is open instead. There is no sign that anything bad has even happened in there. Guess they must have gotten rid of her body during the night.

As we start to make our way down the stairs, I can see Edward waiting for us to join him. But I am surprised to see that he is not alone by himself. There is a woman with beautiful long brown hair standing next to him. With every step we take towards them I can see the woman's silhouette become clearer to me. Then she slowly turns around...

"Eva!"