Despite it only being late afternoon in Las Californias, it was nearing one a.m. in London. And that was the hour in which Lord and Lady Denbourough received a long absent visitor to their estate. Upon seeing the face of the sire he hadn’t set eyes on in nearly a century, Daniel graced him with a wide grin and an eager hug.

“Thomas” he smiled over at the man who matched his own height of 6’1” and was as handsome as Daniel and nearly every other Toreador ever embraced. That was not the only features they had in common, as Thomas’ hair was also the same dark brown shade and was pulled back into a pony tail as it was long enough to brush his shoulders. Though Thomas’ eyes were more of a grayish blue than Daniel’s piercing ocean colored ones.

Thomas grinned as he looked around the home while removing his coat, “I see you’ve done well for yourself in the century since I left you to your own devices.”

“I make due” Daniel responded with false modesty.

“I guess working for the humans does at least pay well” Thomas agreed with another faint smile.

“It has its perks” Daniel agreed as he led his sire to a seat on one of the plush sofas that graced the main hall of his home.

“So I had to stop in and see my Princely sire when I arrived back in London” Thomas began as he cast another look around his childe’s rather lavish home, “and he told me you’ve been having all sorts of adventures these past hundred years or so.”

“Me? I heard you’ve been traveling all over the world in the time since we last parted” Daniel returned as he beckoned for a young servant girl to come forth, offering her wrist to their guest.

Thomas smirked, but eagerly sunk his fangs into the girl’s wrist, both of them reveling in that Kiss for several long moments before Thomas released her and waved her away; then returned to the conversation at hand. “Oh I’ve traveled a bit; mostly spent my nights learning all sorts of new and interesting things” he told him in that same smooth British accent most of the Kindred of their line shared, with a few exceptions.

“My position in the mortal world does keep me rather tethered to England most of the time. But I did manage one trip abroad myself” Daniel informed with another smile.

“Oh yes, to the new world. I too visited the colonies, nay states” Thomas corrected, “but my stay wasn’t very long before I moved on once more.”

“Actually, I’ve never been to the eastern part of America” Daniel offered, “my stay was actually far west in your vampiric brother’s territory” Daniel added, his voice only dropping slightly at the mention of their now departed relative.

“Oh yes, he was given a large section in the southwestern portion of Las Californias, wasn’t he?” Thomas stated, his expression darkening slightly.

“Please tell me Hollister has informed you of what happened there” Daniel offered, though his tone was then wary and his volume lower.

“What would that be?” Thomas returned with a lack of much emotion of his own.

Daniel swallowed a lump in his throat, sure that Hollister would have told his other childe of Haven’s fate; though now that didn’t seem to be the case. He sighed slightly as he cast his eyes downwards, “he was killed, thirteen years ago” Daniel informed sadly.

Thomas simply scoffed at Daniel’s apparent mood, “yes I heard something about that. But you barely knew him, did you?”

Daniel looked a bit startled as he looked back up at his sire’s apparent lack of any sadness regarding Hollister’s other childe. “Well, I lived in his territory for only a month, but…” he just shook his head as he looked away again, “I’m guessing you and Haven weren’t very close yourselves.”

“He went off to live in the new world. I stayed here. We grew apart” Thomas stated with the same lack of concern, “but apparently I’ve now outlived him after all. It was only four years after Haven’s embrace that Hollister embraced me as well.”

Daniel was still a little thrown by Thomas’ lack of feeling for his vampiric brother’s murder. But he chose not to further darken their reunion by dragging out the conversation, “Tasie and I are rather close to the new Prince there though; and his wife” Daniel had to add wryly.

“The new Prince?” Thomas pressed for further information then.

“The one who took over after Haven” Daniel looked down again before continuing, “His name is Sean, and he’s Haven’s childe. He embraced his wife just as I embraced mine; so we have a bit in common” he finished with a smile.

“And when was this?” Thomas asked with a deliberately flat tone.

“When was what?” Daniel returned.

“When did Haven embrace this new Prince, Sean” he clarified with a bit of brevity.

“1598 I believe” Daniel offered as he watched his sire closely, once again wishing he had the ability to read one so much older than himself.

“So, the Prince who’s running what may as well be the entire west coast of the new world was actually embraced 130 years after I was? Interesting” Thomas added with a bit of bitterness.

Daniel attempted a nervous chuckle at Thomas’ apparent disapproval of a man he had never even met. “You said yourself that you and Haven grew apart. That’s probably the only reason why he named Sean heir instead of you” he attempted to assure.

“I suppose” Thomas replied in the same biting tone as he cast another look around the home that was evidence of his own childe’s overwhelming success when he had been embraced almost a century later than this new Prince of Haven’s. Thomas then forced a smile to his lips as he turned back to Daniel, “and you say you are quite close to this Sean?”

Daniel then offered a more sincere chuckle as he looked down before speaking further on the matter “given, I haven’t seen Sean or his beautiful wife in almost thirty years, but the twenty-five years before that we were close; in the biblical sense” he couldn’t help adding with a sly smirk.

Thomas raised a brow as he moved his eyes over his childe once more. “So, you took this new Prince and his wife both to bed?”

Daniel chuckled again, “it wasn’t just me. Tasie quite enjoyed their affections too, as did another close friend, Aidan. He is actually Sean’s grandchilde” he added.

“Close friends indeed” Thomas allowed his own smirk, “and true Toreadors” he added, though there was an odd coloring to his tone on that word which Daniel couldn’t quite put his finger on.

“That we are” Daniel added with another slight chuckle. “You should really think about meeting them. You may end up liking them quite a bit. They’re both rather beautiful. And quite adventurous, as well as skilled in the art of lovemaking” Daniel couldn’t help adding with another grin.

“I may just have to look into that” Thomas returned with a wry yet thoughtful smile of his own.

Back in Las Californias, the hour was just approaching five p.m. as Kristofer found himself still staring off at that high wall in the distance. Forcing a bravery he didn’t truly feel he had, he guided his horse to slowly travel down the beach toward the docks that sat just a little ways outside of that imposing wall. He had somehow convinced himself that he had to at least try and test the waters with Sean, as he needed a new home to keep his very demanding wife from accusing him of not trying to keep his part of their deal after all.

He still had not come to a solid conclusion about whether or not Sean was the same type of creature Claire had been. But he did know that angry though Sean had been at his interest in Claire, he still did not cause him any actual harm despite that fact. And that knowledge is what kept him moving toward that dock, racing though his heartbeat was.

Once he passed the dock and began moving the last bit of distance toward the thick wrought iron gate he could now see, his heartbeat became even more deafening as he had to force down another lump in his throat and remind himself to breathe. Upon his approach to the gate, the two servants guarding it immediately snapped to attention, considering it was still at least a couple hours until the sun would set and their regnants would no longer be helpless to fight off any threats.

“Afternoon” he greeted the two pretty young men warily as he stopped his horse ten to twelve feet away.

“Do you have business here?” the first servant asked, trying to keep any fear out of his voice at the prospect that his bond to Sean was about to be put to some bloody test.

Kristofer took another shaky breath, “yes, actually. I was interested in seeing if I could buy a property off of Lord Beringer” he managed as he watched the two, trying not to think back on tales of vampiric slaves guarding their masters during the day, just waiting to quell their bloodlust on hapless victims who got too close to their lairs.

“Lord Beringer can’t see you right now” the servant responded with brevity.

“When can he see me?” Kristofer managed further.

“Not right now” the second servant chimed in, forcing authority into his own voice, which was that much harder when they spent so much of their lives being submissive to their regnants.

“Is there a better time for me to come talk to him?” Kristofer asked with the same attempt at pushing confidence into his own voice.

Then the two servants looked at each other warily as they each let out a heavy breath of their own before turning their eyes back to their uninvited guest and offering some answer, “he’s a very busy man. He’s usually occupied most all hours of the day” the first servant settled on.

Kristofer narrowed his eyes at that particular word choice, considering suspicions eating at the back of his mind about Sean’s true nature. He then took another breath before asking, “would it be better for me to come back in the evening then?”

That caused another crack in their composure as the two servants looked to each other once more before the second one spoke then, “evening probably would be slightly better. But no guarantees” he added as the two cast each other another furtive glance.

That was when Kristofer dug deep for one remaining piece of bravery and asked one more question, “would it help me get a chance to meet with Lord Beringer if I said that I had been friends with his wife, before” he added the last word more quietly.

The two servants looked a bit caught by that statement as well before the first replied, “you know Lady Beringer?”

Kristofer gave them another strange glance at that word choice as well, but replied nonetheless, “I knew her, back when she ran the tavern” he added sadly.

“That place has been closed for almost two years” the second servant pointed out.

“I know” Kristofer agreed sadly, “but that’s when I knew her” he added in the same quiet tone.

That was when the first servant’s stress level got a little too high for him to continue to have this man in such close proximity to their regnants while the sun was still high in the sky, “regardless, you won’t be able to see Sean before tonight, at the earliest” he added pointedly.

“Fine, I guess I’ll be back in a few hours then” Kristofer stated with a bit of defeat. But he at least wasn’t greeted with any blood-lust as his family had tried to convince him he would be. With another sigh, he guided the horse back toward the beach, causing all three of them to relax a bit upon his departure.

Sean was just starting down the spiral staircase to the main room of his home after waking that evening when one of the servants who had been on gate duty approached with a rather urgent look on his face. Sean sighed as he stepped down off the staircase and looked at the young man, “that does not appear to be a calm expression.”

“We had a visitor a few hours before sunset” the servant informed.

Sean raised a brow at that and asked the obvious question, “and the visitor was who?”

“We didn’t catch his name” the servant admitted with a slight look downwards. He then quickly added, “he said something about buying property from you though.”

“That doesn’t seem particularly dire then” Sean replied.

“He also said that he was friends with Claire” he added more quietly, to which Sean did look a little more concerned.

“And you still didn’t get his name?” Sean asked with a slightly scolding tone.

“Sorry” the servant looked down again, “we’re not exactly used to having visitors ride up to the gate during the day” he then added, “he said he’d be back this evening though.”

Sean sighed as he glanced toward the foyer and then back at the servant. He then spoke again as he took a step closer to the young man, “I guess I’ll have to find out who he is for myself” he stated flatly as he moved even closer and centered an intent gaze on the young man.

After a moment the servant couldn’t help speaking up, “what are you doing, exactly?” he asked warily.

“Shh. It’s easier to hear your thoughts when you’re not talking” Sean instructed as the servant simply swallowed hard and went silent again.

Another moment passed before Sean moved back, his expression immediately darkening. It was then his turn to swallow hard as he looked toward the foyer once more and then turned a serious look back to the servant, “tell the other servants to go get all those silver bullets and blades from the armory. And have one of them go get the rest of the Primogen back here again” he instructed as he moved his eyes back to the foyer again.

The young man paled, “he was a werewolf?”

“If he was you’d be dead right now. But wherever he goes, they’re sure to be close behind. Now go” Sean offered that final warning as he braced himself for whatever the night ahead would truly have in store for them.