It was a fall evening in 1840 when Nicolas found himself summoned to the main house to speak with Sean. As wary as he had always been of any rich, powerful male, let alone the Prince who was the authority over all Kindred in the entire territory, as well as the husband of his former lover; Nicolas was more than hesitant about this meeting. As Garnet had been his constant nightly companion for almost two years, she generously offered to accompany him to the main house where he was to report to this meeting.

Once they arrived in the main hall outside Sean’s office, Garnet was told by one of Sean’s servants that she could wait outside while Sean spoke to Nicolas. This caused further wariness in Nicolas, but it was a request from the Prince, so he forced his feet to carry him into the office alone despite those misgivings.

“Evening Nicolas” Sean greeted him in a quiet tone, reminding himself of how frightened the young man had always seemed in his presence, even before his time spent as Claire’s lover. If only he knew that Sean had been more than aware of the night that Nicolas had watched them to learn the lesson that Claire was trying to teach him about what intimacy truly was supposed to mean.

“Did I do something wrong?” Nicolas greeted him with hesitation as he took his seat, no longer nearly as affected by Sean’s majesty as he had been in his mortal days; though he still had all the wariness left over from that mortal life that made it so difficult for him to trust any male who held a position of authority.

“Not anything that I’ve been specifically made aware of recently” Sean assured with a skeptical look as he attempted to read Nicolas’ thoughts for the briefest moment, as blurry as they even were to him now that Nicolas had been embraced by a vampire just as powerful as Sean’s own sire.

“So then why am I here? And why is she not allowed to come in with me?” Nicolas asked in the same shaky tone.

“She meaning the mortal girl you’ve spent all your time with in the last couple of years?” Sean had to ask with a bit of disapproval coloring his tone, considering how Garnet’s advances had affected every one of Claire’s friendships since her arrival.

“She and I both had very strange childhoods; we talk about the things that we saw growing up” Nicolas stated simply, his brown eyes cast down at the mention of the most painful period of his life.

“That’s all well and good” Sean began, keeping his voice emotion-free before continuing, “but she’s a mortal who is still not completely aware of the truth of what we are; she really has no reason to be in here while you and I speak” Sean finished plainly, his own secondhand knowledge of Garnet’s behavior coloring his opinion of the girl easily.

Nicolas was quieted by Sean’s words for another moment before he spoke again, “and why am I here?” he asked again.

Sean hid a wry smile as he began to explain that reason to Nicolas, “do you know who Prince Hollister is?”

“Prince Hollister?” Nicolas repeated as he looked back up at last. Sean simply nodded, causing Nicolas to speak again, “a Prince I imagine.”

Sean almost allowed the smile as he responded, “he’s the Kindred Prince of London.”

“London? Where Aidan, Daniel and Anastasia live?” Nicolas replied.

“The very same” Sean answered briefly.

“They left. What does their Prince have to do with me?” Nicolas stated with the same bluntness that often resulted from the language barrier as much as it did from his own inability to thrive in most social settings.

“Actually he has a lot to do with you, Nicolas. He was the one who embraced your sire as well as mine, all the way back in the 15th century” Sean supplied that knowledge.

Then Nicolas immediately tensed at the mention of the man who had killed him, turned him, and let him murder five innocents in frenzy as he watched with nothing short of twisted glee. As that darkness took over Nicolas’ otherwise quite attractive features, he spoke in a near growl, “I hate my sire.”

“Well I loved mine” Sean repeated, mirroring Nicolas’ own bluntness before adding, “but I hated yours as much as you did” another pause, “luckily for all of us, Hollister is a lot more like my sire than yours.”

“So, he’s not a monster too?” Nicolas retorted, that darkness still present at the mention of Thomas.

“No, he’s not. He’s actually helped me and Claire several times; you remember Claire, right?” Sean couldn’t help adding as his natural instinct had always been to defend the woman he loved; even back when they had been mere mortals and the enemies were only her ignorant human parents.

“Of course I remember Claire” Nicolas stated, though his volume dropped a bit in what almost resembled guilt.

Sean narrowed his eyes a moment as he tried once more to make out Nicolas’ aura or thoughts, as frustratingly difficult as that now was. He then sighed once more, “anyway, that means that Hollister is your grandsire as well as mine.”

“And?” Nicolas asked as he looked back up at Sean, the wariness managing to inch out the hostility over the mention of his sire ever so slightly.

“And Hollister would like to finally meet you” Sean stated as he returned to his even tone that he tried to maintain as often as he could.

“Why?” Nicolas asked simply.

Sean couldn’t help a slight chuckle, “other than the fact that he’s your grandsire and he hasn’t met you at all in the nineteen years since your embrace?”

“He doesn’t know me; why would he want to meet me?” Nicolas returned.

“Because he doesn’t know you” Sean stated with another slight chuckle. He then adopted a more serious look, “and after what happened with Thomas, he would like to get to know you in the hopes that you will make a better attempt at eternal life than your sire did” he added quietly, as he and Claire had shared the same concerns about Nicolas’ possible chance of becoming one of the dark, deadly, twisted and fallen members of their clan just as Thomas had.

Nicolas swallowed as he tried to find the appropriate reaction, “so he is coming all the way from London to here? To meet me?”

Sean just shook his head, “he’s the Prince; he doesn’t often leave his own territory, just as I don’t often leave mine” he informed as he gestured around the room.

“So I am to go back… there?” Nicolas asked as his voice wavered at the thought of returning to the other side of the Atlantic and being that near to the place where his childhood had been shattered so thoroughly.

Seeing the obvious fear in Nicolas’ dark eyes, Sean replied, “I’m sending you to England, not France.”

“They are very close” Nicolas retorted, that fear sharpening his tone.

“de Sade is dead, Nicolas. He has been for twenty-six years” Sean sighed, “Hollister is not a bad person. His job is just like mine; to protect all of our people there in London just as I try to do here.”

“So, I have no choice?” Nicolas stated as he tried to fight the trembling at the continued thought of returning to that side of the world once more.

“Hollister can teach you things you need to know. And he could do so much more efficiently than anyone here could. Just give it a chance Nicolas. If you hate it there, tell him so and I’m sure he’ll let you leave. Like I said, he is not a monster. So at least give him the chance to meet you and help you in any way he can. He’s been at this a lot longer than me” he added for weight.

Nicolas sighed as he grudgingly nodded and then moved to leave the room in preparation for a journey that he was in no way prepared for or looking forward to. Once Nicolas stepped out of the office, Garnet stood to greet him, “what was all of that about?” she asked as he shuffled toward where she had just gotten to her feet.

“I’m apparently to go to England to meet some other… relative” Nicolas settled on.

Garnet looked a bit surprised by that as she asked, “and when is this trip supposed to happen?”

“Tomorrow night” Sean answered for Nicolas as he stepped into the main hall and then turned his eyes to Garnet, where he was more than a little caught by that beauty that was so similar to Claire’s.

Almost completely forgetting her previous conversation, Garnet was also more than a bit thrown by not only Sean’s awe and majesty, but his beauty as well. Though, she somehow managed to find her voice before he spoke again, “are you Sean?”

Shaking himself out of his distraction upon hearing her voice, Sean responded, “and you must be Garnet.”

“So you’re Claire’s husband?” she asked in that immediately sugared tone as she took a step closer.

Nicolas just shook his head as he noted the way she instantly seemed to forget all about him and turn her attention to Sean instead. Sean and Nicolas both studied her for another moment as though seeing more than just the surface. In response to what he found there, Nicolas simply scoffed and headed toward the foyer to leave Garnet to her latest distraction.

When the door closed behind Nicolas, Sean answered at last, “that I would be” Sean stated with a bit of a tremor to his tone as he still was finding it quite difficult to get over how similar she had been to Claire on a purely physical basis.

“I’m so pleased to meet you” she smiled as she curtsied and took another step forward to offer him her hand.

Sean took it with more than a bit of hesitance as he continued to study her, “why are you doing this, Garnet?” he asked simply as he only let himself take her warm hand in his much cooler one for a brief moment before releasing it once more.

Caught by such a question, she looked up at where he towered eight inches taller than her own modest height. “Doing what?” she asked with an attempt at an innocent tone.

“Trying to seduce every person Claire has ever cared about” Sean told her with the same bluntness, being equally affected by her beauty as he was by his own need to protect Claire from any and all hurt, no matter major or minor; physical or emotional.

Garnet was caught even more by that statement, as well as fairly intimidated as she scrambled for a reaction, “I was just introducing myself to you” she claimed in the same innocent tone.

“You don’t even know why you’re doing this, do you?” Sean continued to read her as if she were merely a book lying open in front of him.

“S…Sorry?” she asked, thrown even further each time Sean spoke.

“All you know is that you want to steal all the love you can from Claire; but you don’t even know why” Sean stated as he looked down at her curiously.

“S…Steal?” Garnet choked on the accusation, not sure what else she could even say, as hearing his observation proved the very truth of it to her then.

It was true that she had felt compelled to do exactly what he had just accused her of; however even she had no conscious awareness of why she felt the need to continue to try to hurt Claire in such a way. She had honestly liked Claire and was incredibly thankful that Claire had offered her a much better life than she ever thought she could have. Yet she somehow couldn’t stop herself from attempting to steal away everyone who had ever meant anything to Claire.

“Someone is making you do this… and you don’t even remember who” Sean sighed softly.

“What?” Garnet asked with further shock at each of his statements.

“It’s a bit hard to control the emotions of someone who can see each and every single thing in your head” Sean told her bluntly, “I think you’ll have to admit to losing this round, Garnet” he added as she continued to look up at him with all sorts of confusion as well as fear. That was when Sean leaned down to look into her eyes before speaking in that same hypnotic tone that she no longer even remembered hearing from another those two years ago, “and now, you will return to whoever made you want to do this, and tell them that the game is over. You lost. Run along now” he added as she simply nodded and quickly began moving toward the door. That was when Sean turned his attention to the servant still posted outside his office door, “follow her and then come straight back here and tell me who it is that she goes and talks to exactly.”