Chapter 2: The Truth Bites

Characters: Vincent, Jasik, Essence, Delilah Richard, Vladimir Crimson
Warnings: Language, major spoilers, violence
Short Story: Essence tells the other members of Vampirane Law about Suzuka.

"How did it happen like this? Why does she want to start this..." Essence kept asking herself under her breath. She couldn't go through with the war that she had to be preparing for with her rival clan. She couldn't hurt him..

"What's wrong with you! You've been through this before. He's just a guy." Essence tried to convince herself.

"Who are you kidding.. You can't hurt him and you know it." Essence was stuck between a rock and a hard place. She had to prepare for the war that would soon break out, but she couldn't prepare for another heart break. "Snap out of it!" She tried again. She knew she wouldn't win this battle with her emotions.
She sighed. She hated this. The wars. She knew she couldn't make a law to ban it, even if she was the president of Vampirane Law. She didn't care to battle any other clan, but a battle with this clan seemed almost impossible.

"What do you want, Vincent?" Essence asked without looking up. She felt the sunlight finally pierced through her window completely, and though she'd gone through it many times she winced when it hit her; her most recent scar had been bad. "Awh don't be like that. I just wanted to check on my girl. You okay?"

Essence stood up fast. "What do you mean, your girl?" Essence said, trying to hold back any sign of emotion such as anger, curiosity, or even flatness in her tone. Vincent smirked and Essence became uneasy. He sensed it and sauntered over to her.

Vincent pulled Essence close and started kissing her neck. "What the fuck are you doing!" Essence said just above a whisper, caught by surprise. Vincent continued kissing the nape of her neck, finding his way to her collar bone.

Before Essence could register another remark, she saw her couch fly and crash through her window and Jasik's hand firmly around Vincent's neck slamming him into the wall in less then half a second. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Jasik's voice boomed through the house. The only sound coming from Vincent was gurgling sounds as he continued to get the life choked out of him. "Calm down" Essence told Jasik through telepathy in a calming voice.

 Jasik did as he was told and stormed out, cursing under his breath. Vincent slid down the wall choking and gasping for air as his throat loosened. Essence walked out after Jasik, feeling an uncomfortable feeling she'd never experienced before. And it wasn't a feeling of love, more of disgust and regret and violation.

As she stood on the balcony, he watched her. He could smell the uneasy feeling she had in her blood. He wondered what happened, but it wasn't his place to wonder. She seemed tense. "Hey.." he said in a small voice just above a whisper. Startled, Essence flinched; he was the only person she couldn't sense or read their mind or even know what he was doing. "Hey" she said, without looking up. She couldn't face him after what had happened, and because of the recent news. "Delilah is here... We're ready for the meeting when you are" he spoke again. "Okay" was her only reply.

When Essence reached the room, Vladimir had already been in the room. She could smell nervousness on his blood as Delilah was looking down at his crotch smiling.

"Are you going to keep staring or is this going to be an actual meeting?" Essence chimed in. Delilah didn't seem to move a muscle, but her smile slowly started to disappear.

Essence finally got what she wanted. Delilah's smile completely disappeared at the realization that Essence was now in her presence. Her eyes flicked up, and she looked a little more then annoyed. Her scowl looked made her outfit clash, mainly because at first she looked cute and innocent. All of that was now gone.

"So sorry, dear. You just seemed to take so long for such an important and strong elder. Vladimir and I were just talking here. Isn't that right, Vladimir?" Delilah's thick Russian accent always had a way of bothering Essence. It was gorgeous, but it really got on your nerves after awhile.

"Well 'just talking' can be done in the conference room, with 'no staring'. I'll freshen up and be up there in a second."

"You do that," Delilah sneered.

"Heh, there's NO WAY your little Llama team is going to win. They totally suck, Lilah!" Vladimir teased. "You know they're going to win. They're like the best team, who are YOU rooting for Mr. I'mSoGoodAtSports?"

"Honest?"

"Honest!"

"I don't have a team. Don't really like sports, but the Llamas suck and you know i-" The door opened and interrupted their intense sports conversation.

Essence stepped in. "Are you guys ready to start?" Vladimir nodded and Delilah replyed by jumping off the table. "Okay. Open up to where we left off. We never got to finish the discussion of what we're going to do about this flu epidemic this year."

"....so I think this year we should just give the hospitals the medicine anonymously again, because this year it's worse then last. The others are complaining that the blood tastes 'sour'," Essence lectured. "Great so it's settled." Delilah's unenthusiastic voice interrupted. "So, on a more interesting note, who's the new human?"

"I hardly think that concerns you..." Essence said in a quieted, hushed tone.

"Well, either you tell me now or I can go downstairs and have a nice snack. The choice is yours." Delilah's voice was heavy with sass. "I kinda wanna know about her, too. But only if your comfortable." Vladimir chimed in. It was the first time he'd spoken since Essence had entered the conference room.

Essence signed. "Okay fine. Her name is Suzuka, and she's Kagome's twin sister. She's pretty quiet and I think she's afraid of us. She doesn't really leave her room, and we think Vincent is out to get her in bed."

"Is she anything like Kagome?" Vladimir questioned with a quizzical look on his face. "No. She's... Girly. She's a non-annoying version of Delilah." Essence replied. "Oh haha, you're so funny. Anyway will she keep quiet about our secret?" Delilah asked, unaffected by Essence's insult. "She'll keep quiet." 

"How sure about that are you, Essence? You put your faith in too many peo-"

"I'm certain. I bet my life on it."

"I thought you couldn't die."

"You know one thing can kill me don't play dumber then you already are, princess." Essence snarled.

"Don't get mad I forgot. I don't think about killing you every moment of the day!"

"Yeah, just most of them."

"Whatever. I'm going to go check if this Selena girl is legit."

"You are NOT going to go mess with Suzuka." Essence replied, fury building within the pit of her core.

"I'm not going to do anything to Scarlet, I'm just going to talk to her! Calm down, President PissPants!" Delilah shot back. "You're not going anywhere, Delilah!" Essence spat. "Oh I'm going, and you're not going to do shi-" "Just go." Vladimir interrupted. 

Delilah walked out without a word, leaving behind an angry looking Essence.

Essence walked in a few seconds after Delilah but to no avail. She'd already gone down the elevator. Essence sighed, breaking the silence. And that's when she heard it. His heart beat. He'd walked in after her.

"You know, you shouldn't let her get you angry so easily. But you do look pretty hot angry." Essence blushed at his comment. "Well, you can look pretty good when you get angry yourself." She replied. He walked over to her and pulled her to the ground.

When he'd first pulled her down, they'd both laughed about it. Then he got mesmerized in her eyes and slowly started pushing his face towards hers. She started the same thing, but then realized they shouldn't be doing this. "Wait, Vlad. We can't. I'm sorry." Essence whispered against his lips. "No, I'm sorry E. You're right. No need to be sorry. I didn't mean to I just... I don't know. I'm gonna go now. Envy said she needed me to hurry before I left so I'll just see you later. Bye Essence." Vladimir got up and walked out. "No Vlad wait..." Essence pleaded, but it was already too late; he'd already left.

Essence let her head fall back to the ground hard and wrapped her arms around herself as hot tears streaked down her cheeks. Smearing her make-up, they stained her soft and lightly colored cheeks a dark and mysterious black. "I'm sorry, Vlad" She whispered to the empty room. She knew he couldn't hear her; he was probably already out the door. He was faster then her, which meant he was pretty damn fast. She missed him already; longed for him. She knew how Jasik felt, to love someone you can't have. She shut her eyes and continued letting the black-make-up-stained tears flow down her cheeks, all the while not making a sound as she silently cried to herself.

Okay I know I took forever getting this out, and it's really short. They'll start getting longer as we get more and more into their everyday lives. Well I hope you enjoy this short chapter and the next will be out sooner than this one was!