Closer

Olivia sighed as she ran her fingers through her hair. She stood up from her crouched position and solemnly shook her head.

"You can't see any further?" Alexander asked with eyebrows knotted, as he looked down.

"All I keep seeing is that day. Nothing more," Olivia replied, frustrated. She too, had her violet eyes locked on to the ground. Her nose scrunched slightly as she tried to adjust to the foul smell.

At the moment, the two of them were standing in Alexander's room. On the floor lay Orpha's rotting corpse. Alexander, had of course, not forgotten to glean any extra information from Orpha's past, but it seemed that Olivia's power was lacking.

Olivia picked up a clean cloth and rubbed away the left over blood from her vision. Thinking about it, this vision was quite bizarre in that, she had to watch herself kill someone in another person's point of view.

Alexander, on the hand, felt that he was getting quite distracted. It had been awhile now as his senses had long been assaulted from the smell of Olivia's blood. Not only that, his hearing had also attuned itself to listen in on Olivia's pumping heart. His throat felt dry and scratchy, while his fangs felt itchy. Because of the warm weather, Olivia had unbuttoned the top two buttons on the collar of her dress, revealing a smooth and slender neck. One that would snap like a twig under his hands.

Before his thoughts could get any darker, he quickly moved his darkened eyes away.

Once Olivia was done with cleaning herself, she looked up at him, "What do you think her purpose was?"

"Most likely a grudge with vampires. It is not uncommon for people to take revenge against us. It's just a matter of whether they have what it takes," Alexander replied.

Olivia went silent for a moment before asking, "Do you think she was specifically targeting the De Vere household?"

"Who knows," Alexander gave a slight upturn of his lips, "There are a lot of things we have done to offend others."

Olivia didn't know what to reply to that. She merely gave him a glance before looking away again.

"Go and clean yourself in the bathroom," Alexander ordered her, before turning to talk to Reginald who had just stepped into the room.

Olivia did not say much else before promptly taking herself for a wash. Once she stepped into the bathroom, her eyes looked over at the once empty table top, which was now adorned with a few bottles.

This was not the first time Olivia had seen them. It was a few days ago when she first noticed the new additions. 5 different bottles were stacked in a neat line, all of them in clear and transparent glass. The liquids were of soft pink and blue colours. Although Olivia could sound out the letters and read the words pasted on the surface of the bottles, she could not quite understand the words. At first she thought Alexander had brought it for his own use but days went by and yet the amount of liquid in the bottles had stayed the same. One day she questioned him about it and he simply replied with, "Use them as you see fit."

Olivia did not know whether this was his own way of giving her compensation from Orpha's ordeal, but she happily accepted the little bottles with open arms. If anything, she too, felt that she deserved some compensation for her life saving work, and looking at them now, she knew that these small bottles were of no little cost and should add up to quite the hefty sum.

Although she didn't ask Alexander how to use them, she later found that underneath the labels, another section appeared that succinctly directed how one should use them. And so, from then on, Olivia started to smell like fresh roses one day and lavender another.

Once she was done, she changed from her dirty dress into her clean spare. She made sure that her features had returned to normal before leaving. Reginald was kept waiting outside the door.

"Master Alexander is downstairs in the drawing room."

Olivia raised her eyebrows. She didn't quite understand why Reginald was informing her of his whereabouts, but she felt that she should probably go down there herself.

As she walked closer to the drawing room, she could hear the chattering's of multiple people. Once she stepped into the room, all talking ceased as everyone eyed the new arrival.

Olivia felt rather uncomfortable under their stares and quickly shuffled over to stand behind Alexander as she had always done before. She briefly looked up and saw that apart from Eli, there were two other people.

One of them was a pretty young woman who sat right next to Eli. Her brown and luscious hair was spread out behind her, a teal feathered hat, sitting on top of her head. Her hands were covered by a pair of pure white gloves, with not a speck of dirt seen on them. Her dress, matching her hat, was of the same colour. All in all, Olivia thought she was a very noble and elegant woman.

The other person she had seen was a man. He sat by himself on the lone single chair, seemingly enjoying the conversation. What immediately attracted Olivia's eyes were not his impeccable clothes, but rather his dark crimson eyes. for Olivia, this was the first time she had come across another pureblood up close, other than the De Vere members.

"What are you doing standing around?" Alexander called out without looking back at her.

Olivia snapped out of her observations and furrowed her eyebrows not understanding what the vampire meant.

'What exactly does he want me to do? Sit on the floor?'

The room quietened down once Alexander spoke.

Seeing Olivia not move, Alexander finally turned around, "Come over here."

Olivia looked at him for a moment, before walking around to the front.

"Sit."

Not saying much else, Olivia sat down next to him, albeit still confused.

Eli keenly watched their interaction, his eyes flitting between the two. Once Olivia sat down, Eli looked down and sipped his tea quietly.

"Oh? Is this your Giver?" The vampire asked, as his eyes glanced over Olivia.

"And where did you hear that from?" Alexander replied, not much of an expression was shown on his face.

Olivia however, scrunched her nose slightly. She truly did not like being referred to as such, but she knew that whatever she said, people would not believe otherwise so she was left with having to put up with it.

"From your young Rosina, of course."

Alexander gave a monotone sigh, "Her claws are stretching far too wide these days."

From being around him for quite a while now, Olivia knew that Alexander did not like his information being spread around but it seemed Rosina did not understand her brother as much. Or rather, she did not care for his likes and dislikes.

"I wonder where you bought such a fine specimen. Perhaps I can entice you for a trade?" The vampire asked Alexander as he continued to eye Olivia.

Olivia felt extremely uncomfortable under his gaze. She felt like he was looking at her as if she were akin to livestock, judging her value. She felt especially on alert when he spoke of a trade. Eli too, had a deep frown once he heard the vampire's words.

"Rufus, I suggest you watch your words," Alexander warned, his eyes slightly narrow yet his lips had a slight smile.

Rufus looked unruffled at his words and harmlessly put his hands up in defence, "Ah, my mistake. I forgot our young Master Alexander doesn't like to play trading games. Quite the selfish one aren't you?"

Alexander only gave a low hum as a reply.

Olivia looked between the two purebloods. She didn't know whether the two were close to one another or whether they did not fear each other.

Eli cleared his throat to clear the awkward tension.

He turned to look at Olivia with a smile, "Miss Olivia, let me introduce you to someone."

Olivia's eyes flitted over to the woman who was sitting next to Eli.

"This is Charlotte Asquith. She's someone who I have grown up with and is one of my dear friends. Charlotte, this is Miss Olivia."

Olivia gave her a polite smile while Charlotte gave her a small nod from her seat.

After a while Rufus, Eli and Charlotte began their own conversation while Olivia and Alexander's side was quiet.

Olivia looked over at Alexander who was currently drinking from his cup. Olivia couldn't quite see it clearly, but caught sight of a red substance.

"Why? Are you thirsty?" Alexander caught her off guard as he gazed over at her.

Olivia scrunched her nose and her face blanched, "Why on earth would I drink that?"

Alexander raised his eyebrows in amusement while a low chuckle rang out, "What do you mean? What do you think this is?"

Olivia's eyes roamed back to the cup that was currently held in Alexander's hand. Her eyes roamed between the entertained Alexander and the small cup, "Aren't you drinking… blood?"

She whispered the last word as if it was forbidden.

"It's not. It's just Rooibos tea," Alexander gave her a quirk of a smile as he looked at her ever changing expressions.

Olivia felt stumped and then embarrassed. How was she to know it was tea? Of course if a vampire was drinking something that was red in colour, wouldn't the first natural thing to think, be that it was perhaps blood?

"It's not my fault I thought that way," Olivia grumbled as she looked away.

Eli, on the other hand, was watching the pairs interactions closely. He could not help but think that the two had grown rather close over time. He continued to watch their little interactions with each other while Charlotte and Rufus' conversation played in the background.

Soon, the conversation in the room turned to the topic of servants.

"Some of my human servants had resigned from their jobs. I don't really know what's happening but I heard that many other vampire households have the same problem," Rufus knitted his dark eyebrows.

"I guess your lucky then, Alexander," Eli jested.

Of course, Alexander hadn't heard of such news and even if he did, it had no impact on him. All the servants in the De Vere household were half vampire's with the Givers being the only humans.

Charlotte looked down as she sipped her tea, "I also heard that there are more and more hunters now."

"Hunters?" Olivia blurted out.

Eli gave her a helpless smile and opened his mouth to inform her but Alexander beat him to it, "Hunters are people who hunt for vampire's that are criminals. They sometimes work with the bureau in catching them."

Rufus gave a chortle from the side and spat out, "It's not only criminals. They pretty much catch any vampire, guilty or innocent."

The mood of the room soon became sullen and dreary. Olivia, however, silently pondered over their explanation.

After a while, Eli spoke, "Have you heard? The king is setting up a charity event."

Alexander was not surprised as Julian had already told him a few days ago, but Rufus and Charlotte were quite surprised.

"A charity event?" Charlotte repeated in a confused tone.

"The old bag had never done such a thing before," Rufus commented.

Olivia continued to listen on as she felt slightly amazed. They all kept on casually talking about the king. Was this what it was to be of nobility?

Olivia had long known about the royal family. Truthfully, everyone had heard of them, especially in her village where they were praised to the heavens and were put on the highest pedestal. If anything, Olivia could not remember even once where the royal family was not admired and loved. Even young Olivia had admiration and praise, not so much for the Olivia of now, though.

Thinking of the royal family, a small memory popped up in Olivia's mind.

Young Olivia stood on the cracked and weedy podium with a long tattered cloth attached to her head.

In front of her, a young boy only a few years older than her, was kneeling on the dry muddy ground on one knee. His hazel eyes looked up at the young girl, as his arm stretched out to hold her small and tender hand.

"Would my lady allow this humble prince to take her?"