Lira pulled herself together and started towards the dresser. An ornamented large mirror hung atop the dresser. She stared at her reflection and cringed at the ugly red marks on her neck. The bodice of her gown was stained with her blood. Mari would definitely kill her for ruining the gown. Stupid vampires and their stupid jealousy! And her stupid, stupid self! Oh now she had identified that brewing feeling inside of her. Now she could give it a name. Now she was definitely sure of what she felt. Great. She was in love with the vampire brute. That manipulative, scheming vampire made her fall, hard. Greeaat. Oh happy day.

She touched the fang marks and flinched when she felt a stinging pain. As she assessed the wound further and contemplate as to how to go home without drawing too much attention due to her ghastly sight, she heard the door opening. She spun around expecting Nicholas' angry face. Instead, Elisabeth strode towards her.

The vampire girl gave her a pitying look. "Oh, you poor thing! What came into Nicholas to do this to you?"

Lira eyed the vampire speculatively. Elisabeth was holding what seemed like a towel and clothes neatly folded.

Elisabeth set it atop the dresser. "You should get yourself cleaned up. I brought you a towel and set of clothes for you to wear. The bathroom is right there," she said kindly, pointing to a door behind Lira.

Lira hesitated at first. She didn't want to be naked inside a vampire bathroom. What if he came back and saw her without a stich of clothing?

Elisabeth must have seen the apprehension in her eyes and said gently, "Go on. He will not come back. I will stand guard and wait until you finish. I may not look like it, but I'm a tough vampire. I can drag Nicholas out of this room by his ears."

Lira needed to clean the blood of her, so she nodded and went to the bathroom. She quickly cleaned herself and changed into a peach, short sleeve, baby doll dress. She pulled the pins out of her hair and gave her head a shake, then ran her fingers through the tangles. She eyed the bathroom as she combed her hair with her fingers. It was just like a normal human bathroom only a lot more elegant. She spied a toothbrush set inside a glass. How cute—a toothbrush to keep those fangs sparkly clean, she thought. Oh, how tempted she was to run the head of the brush inside the toilet, just so she could extract some revenge. Lucky for Nicholas, she was able to restrain herself from executing her plan.

She went out of the bathroom and true to her word, Elisabeth patiently waited for her outside, sitting on the bed, her hands rested on her lap. When she saw Lira coming out of the bathroom, she smiled warmly and tapped the bed. "Come. Sit beside me for a while." When she saw Lira's hesitation, she added, "I won't hurt you."

Lira believed her for she went towards Elisabeth and sat a few inches away from the vampire. The vampire girl gave her another pitying look. "Nicholas didn't even heal the fang marks. What a brute."

"My sentiments exactly," she found herself saying causing Elisabeth to giggle. "Why is he doing this? I thought he was nice and all until he started acting all scary, doing stupid things like tapping my veins and saying stupid stuff like 'you're mine' and 'I'm jealous' blah-blah. Really, everything he's doing is vexing on my part."

Elisabeth smiled at her. "I know. Nicholas can sometimes make a monk lose his patience. Growing up with Nicholas made me understand him and his actions, however. Ask me anything about him, and I'll try to explain it for you."

"Why did he demand for my blood? Why did he take it straight from me? I can just give it to him via blood bank. That way he wouldn't be breaking the treaty and it'll be less painful for me."

"Your blood is... special. I don't know how it came to be like that but your blood smells very different compared to others. Nicholas grew up always having his way. He was raised to demand and he always gets what he wanted. In this case, he wanted your blood. So I surmised it was what drove him to maneuver you in to giving your blood. As for the treaty... it's a vampires' nature to—uh—look for a source to—how am I going to say this?—sink our fangs into... Let's just say that our fangs hurt and we need to ease it. I have never done that though, drinking blood straight from the humans. I drink from the supply we get from the blood bank. If I can't really help it, I hunt for animals to feed," she explained.

"The treaty," she added, "was a way to ensure that no harm will pass on to the humans. It equally protects us from being hunted by the slayers. However, some vampires found a loophole that if the blood was given to them freely, then they still honor the treaty."

"Nicholas sometimes scares me," Lira admitted. "He always threatens me, insults my friends and now he's acting like a possessive, domineering, jealous vampire."

"Nicholas grew up different from the humans. You have to remember vampire ways are different. Again, he is used to having things being handed to him readily because he and everyone knew he is the future king. I remember the time when we were young—he snatched Sevastian's toy and declared it as his. Only Philip has the power to reprimand him, other than me, that is. That explains the domineering side. As for jealousy..." Elisabeth suddenly burst in to fits of giggles. "I thought I would never see the day Nicholas would be jealous! I could clearly see how that feeling so foreign to him drove him quite mad—he doesn't know what to do. The threats, the insults, his possessiveness... I can account that from his inability to express himself properly. I guess just like human males, he is one of those boys who have difficulty showing their true emotions—he's happy to be with you but pretends to be grouchy; he likes you and he goes all nasty."

She gave Lira another warm smile. "I am not defending his actions; I'm merely explaining it to you as to why he behaved like that. I'm not expecting you to understand him. Some of the things he does, I don't agree. What you can do is help him; make him understand. Make him see that his actions over his petty jealousy were wrong."

"I'm not sure I'm the right person to do that. I don't even know if he can change."

"What I learned with my one hundred and seventeen years of existence is this: one thing that is constant is change. Even if we vampire do not age the way you humans do, everything around us changes through time. And that includes our personalities and preferences. I believe you are the one—you can help him change. I was surprised, actually, when he stormed inside the sitting room asking a favor from me. A favor! Imagine that? He doesn't ask favors—he demands. He even said the word please," Elisabeth said, sounding amused. "That's why I came here; to help you get cleaned up."

"I really don't know what to say," Lira said softly. "Thank you—uh—Elisabeth for helping me."

Elisabeth smiled. "Call me Lisa." She frowned at the fang marks on Lira's neck. "We need to hide that. And I know just the thing!" Lisa excitedly scanned the room with her eyes. Then her eyes lit up as she glided (really, she looked like she just glided; maybe royal vampires walked like that) and extracted a small box from one of the drawers of the dresser. She sat again beside Lira and opened the box, revealing a simple black lace choker with a jet black rhinestone dangling from the lace. "I dragged Nicholas to go with me to the shops near Mines View last week. This one caught his eye—he said it reminded him of the color of your hair. He bought this one and said he wanted to woo you." She chuckled and she told Lira how she teased Nicholas about attempting to court a girl after that.

Lira shook her head. "I don't think I should wear it. Not without his permission."

"Oh, you can. He intended to give it to you anyway," she insisted. She stood behind Lira and clasped the choker around her neck. "It looks beautiful on you. Have a look in the mirror."

Lira stood and went to the mirror. The choker did look beautiful on her neck. It was wide enough to hide the fang marks. She touched the cool rhinestone with her fingers. She guessed Nicholas did try to win her affection her. She spun around and faced Lisa. "Thank you."

Lisa smiled and stood, approaching Lira. "You're welcome. Now, is there anything you want to ask before I'll escort you back to your dorm?"

"No. Well, actually I was wondering why you're here. I saw you at the ball earlier."

Lisa's smile faded as she stared at Lira with sad eyes. "Like you, I followed Sev. I was... disappointed that he took a Drudge. I saw you standing there, looking frightened. I was about to approach you when Nicholas showed up..."

Lira felt that Lisa was suffering her own set of sorrow regarding Sevastian. So she decided to drop the subject and said she was ready to go home.

She was inside the room, waiting for Yumi when she realized she didn't know what a 'Drudge' was that Lisa mentioned. She was pulled out of her thoughts when Yumi came barging in and exclaimed, "Lira! Thank goodness I found you. Where were you? We've been looking for you everywhere."

"I'm sorry Yumi. I suddenly felt unwell and came here. I'm sorry I made you all worry."

"Don't do that again. Ever. You almost gave me a freaking heart attack!"

Lira chuckled. "You're still young to have a heart attack. Now you have some explaining to do. I saw you dancing with Stephan. Care to explain?"

Yumi gave her a sheepish smile and flopped herself on Lira's bed. "Well, it started like this..."

Lira was nervous the following day. It was their last class before they would have their semestral break. They were also having their evening class with the vampires. Earlier that day, she saw the fang marks slowly healing. It was nearly invisible. She was not sure if she would wear the choker or not. The black lace was simple enough that it could pass as part of the uniform ensemble. She decided to wear it.

She sat on their usual spot for class. The sighs and giggles from her female classmates gave her warning that the vampires had arrived. Stephan and Sevastian, and with the new addition of Elisabeth who gave her a wink, sat behind them. Nicholas also arrived and looked slightly stunned as he stared down on Lira's neck, eyeing the black choker. He sat down beside her; his face betrayed no flicker of emotion. Mari, who had an obsession for accessories, noticed Lira's choker and said, "That's a pretty choker! I want one, too. Where did you buy that?"

Lira gave Mari a smile and proudly said, "It's really pretty, isn't? It's a gift, actually. The one who gave this to me... he has good taste, don't you think? I find I like this a lot."

Lira spied a corner of Nicholas' lips tilted to one side when she finished boasting the gift to her friends. She then met his gaze and his gray eyes turned soft as she gave Lira a smile unlike the others he usually wore, and it made her heart melt. She gave him a small and shy smile in return.

#

"So does this mean I'm now officially your—what do you humans call it?—boyfriend?" Nicholas teased. He was sitting beside Lira on the couch, his arm casually slung on the backrest behind Lira.

Right after their class, Nicholas followed Lira to the rec room. The rec room was almost deserted since most of the students were busy preparing their things they'd be bringing to their homes tomorrow. "Why? Don't you have something like that in your vampiric world?"

He shook his head. "No. For the commoners—(Lira snorted so Nicholas amended)—ordinary vampires, they see someone they like, they marry them immediately. For the nobles and royals, it's the parents or guardians who choose the groom or bride. We don't have anything in between."

"Arrange marriages! That's like robbing you of your rights."

"It's a vampire's way of life."

Then an awkward silence. Nicholas brushed his hand along Lira's hair. "I like the feel of your hair," he said softly.

Lira snorted. "You should have seen my hair before the change. It's so frizzy, it broke my brush."

"What change?"

Lira clamp her mouth shut. She almost informed Nicholas of the changes she experienced due to the deity's impeding awakening. "I'm not so sure I could call you my boyfriend now. I mean, everything happened so fast. And I still haven't forgiven you for your past sins," she said, changing the topic. "And I wasn't aware you wanted me to be your girlfriend."

"Fast? Honestly, if you think about it, I started wooing-slash-courting you since the day I gave you those strawberries," he stated. "And yes, Lira, I do want you to be my girl, considering I've developed these affections for you."

"But you were BUYING my affections that time!"

"Buying, wooing... they're just the same," he insisted.

Lira shook her head. Before, she'd be annoyed. Now, she was just amused with his ignorance about courting and girls. "No they are not, Nick. I'm going to have my hands full with school stuff and teaching you about girls and making them happy, particularly this girl," she said, pointing a finger at herself.

"Is that really inevitable?" he grumbled.

Lira chuckled. "Yes it is. So that means no threatening, insulting, garroting and gutting of my friends and the people around us; no unwarranted jealousy and sudden rage of violence; no scheming, maneuvering, deceiving me. No tapping of vein... as much as possible."

"If it's inevitable," he said, slumping on the couch, pouting.

Lira laughed, looking at Nicholas' reactions to her conditions. She playfully pinched his nose and said, "You look so cute when you're trying to be nice."

Nicholas caught her hand and kissed it before placing it on top of his heart, making Lira blush.

"We—we will be working on some issues as we go along," she said. "I guess we both need to be patient. Frankly, you're the first boy that I... you're my first boyfriend."

"I'm glad to hear I'm the first boy in your life," he said. Nicholas drew Lira closer to him, her head resting on his chest. "I forgot to mention this during the Ball, but I think you were the prettiest girl that night."

"Aw. My Nicholas, trying to be sweet!" she teased. Then her face fell. "But I knew I was not, the prettiest I mean. No one even asked me for a dance."

Nicholas cleared his throat. "Well... I might have ordered some vampires and a few of the other boys not to go near you or glance your way. I'm not sure."

Lira slapped Nicholas in the chest. "Nicholas!"

"I was goddamn jealous that night!" he defended.

Lira sighed. "As long as you'll not do it again." A moment had passed before Lira broke the silence. "Uhm, Nick. You said before that the vampire council disapproves of relationship between vampires and humans. What are we going to do about it?"

"We'll work on it as we go along."

Lira drew herself up and looked at Nicholas. "Aren't you scared? About what your father will think?" Lira asked, thinking about her mother and Philip.

"Let me deal with him when the time comes."

"But Nick—"

"Don't burden yourself with it for now. What happened with your mother and Philip will not happen to us." Upon seeing the surprised look on Lira's face, he said, "Yes, I know what happened between them. My father is the spawn of the devil. I will not let him hurt you."

Lira sighed and gave him a small smile. "Okay."

"Lira, it would be wise for us to keep this a secret for the mean time; only until I figure out how to deal with the council."

Lira was thinking of the same thing. She wasn't sure how everyone would receive the news about them being a couple. She sure couldn't imagine what his brother Philip would think now that she would soon be an enemy of the vampires—at least the bad vampires. "Okay." She decided she couldn't tell Nick yet about the Dayanghirang not until Miss Amara says she could.

"So when am I going to hear the words 'I love you, Nicholas'?" Nick suddenly asked with a teasing grin on his handsome face.

"When am I going to hear 'I love you, Lira'?" she asked in return.

"I'm a prince, Lira. People shower praises and love at my feet, not the other way around," he answered arrogantly.

Lira rolled her eyes and decided to let Nicholas' arrogance off the hook for now. "We really do have a lot of issues to work with. Let's start with toning down your arrogance..."