Connection

Alexander stared back at her. He put one of his legs over the other as he balanced his half empty glass on the sleek armchair.

"…The Order," He muttered back.

"What do you want to know?"

"I don't know much about The Order, especially since I haven't been outside for many years," Olivia slowly spoke. The second half of her sentence coming out even slower.

Alexander didn't say anything but stared at her with his glittering red eyes.

After a while, he spoke up with a lazy drawl, "The Order had always been around as far as we know. However, 8 years ago, they suddenly began to interact with the public more than usual. Their 'public speeches' being an example."

Olivia furrowed her eyebrows.

"You seem to have something you want to say," Alexander remarked.

Olivia looked up at him for a moment. The soft sunset rays peered from behind Alexander, shrouding him in a glowing golden halo, an extremely stark contrast with his pitch black hair. He looked so angelic and graceful, yet his eyes were a dark glowing crimson, the opposite of his radiant image. For a while, Olivia almost found it hard to continue looking straight at him but nonetheless, her eyes were firmly fixed on the vampire in front. When she first saw him she thought this, and she still had the same thoughts after these few months: the man before her was extremely handsome. Now, Olivia hadn't seen many good-looking men in her small lifetime, but she knew that Alexander would easily be the most handsome to her.

Clearing both her throat and her messy thoughts, Olivia steered her mind back to the conversation at hand.

For a few moments she hesitated before finally divulging, "I think there's a link between them."

Alexander's eyes narrowed, "What link?"

"A link between The Order and the gold masks."

Silence dawned in the room.

"Who told you this?" Alexander questioned in a calm voice.

"I heard it from some rumours," Olivia vaguely replied.

It wasn't that she didn't want to tell Alexander about the conversation between her and Alban, but she first wanted to get more information before she proceeded to disclose of her doings.

"Hmm."

Alexander's tuned hearing had long heard the skip in her heartbeat when she answered him.

Was it from hiding the truth, or was it from the guilt?

He looked deeply at the small glass cup being held in his hand, but truthfully his mind had flown elsewhere.

"And what else did these… rumours entail?"

A slight breath of relief escaped from Olivia's lips once she saw that he hadn't probed too deeply. She wasn't, however, silly enough to think that he had believed her claims. Of course, she was fully aware that he was suspicious of the origin of her so called 'rumours' but merely pretended to drop it for the moment. Something that she was thankful for at this time.

"Just that there might be a link between The Order and the gold masks," Olivia made sure to heavily emphasise the word 'might' as she herself didn't know whether Alban's words were valid. In truth, he hadn't actually outright said that the two were connected, but the fact that he mentioned both of them at the same time, surely wasn't a pure coincidence.

Alexander pondered in silence. More and more questions filtered through his mind.

'If the gold masks were indeed associated with The Order, what exactly was their role?'

He pursed his lips slightly before taking a sip from his drink.

"For now, don't tell anyone about this." Alexander instructed.

Olivia nodded her head. She didn't plan to do so anyway.

The pair seeped back into silence. Each of them mulling over their own thoughts. Olivia didn't really know what to think about Alban's information. She still remembered how vigilant and cautious he acted when he spoke of The Order especially when it came to the people with golden masks. She couldn't help but wonder, what was their purpose? What is The Order trying to achieve? And most of all, if they are indeed linked, why are they committing murder?

There were too many unanswered questions, so much so that, Olivia found herself getting a headache from them.

Suddenly the door to the room opened.

Both Alexander and Olivia whipped their heads to the unwelcomed guest.

After closing the door behind them, they walked over to the pair with a slow stride before standing before them.

"Well, isn't this a nice cozy meeting," Julian's playful and sarcastic voice rang throughout the room.

A lazy smile was planted on his face while his hands were buried in his trouser pockets.

As Julian continued to relish in the awkward atmosphere, his dark eyes landed on Olivia causing her to feel as if she had been pricked by a thousand needles.

Without any prompts, Olivia swiftly stood up from her seat and strode over towards Alexander, sitting down next to him on the chaise longue chair. She had not talked much with this De Vere member, but she could not help but feel on guard whenever he was near.

Alexander, however, seemed relaxed and unperturbed as he looked back at his brother.

"What a pleasure to have you grace us with your presence," Alexander replied with a cool voice.

As she looked between the siblings Olivia often noticed, especially during meal times, that the two seemed to be awfully playful with their words when they were in conversation, yet she could also feel that something was simmering under the surface of this light-hearted façade.

Julian's eyes took a moment to roam around, especially taking notice of the glasses and the bottle on the table.

"What was going on here? A late evening rendezvous?" Julian's long arms reached over to the table and picked up the bottle.

He took a long swig of the drink, his eyes never leaving the pair in front of him.

Olivia didn't reply neither did she want to. She kept her eyes trained on everything else other than the vampire in front.

"Hmm, something like that," Alexander replied.

Olivia's lips twitched while her ears grew hotter. She turned around to glance at him. Why on earth are they talking about this?

"The charity event is next week," Julian resumed back to his formal seriousness.

Alexander knew that his brother didn't come here to merely quibble, "What of it?"

"That old crone will want something substantial from us, our reputation is also on the line, as are all the other nobles that are attending."

"The northern ore mines are enough."

"That's what me and father thought too," Julian swayed the bottle in his hand to and fro.

The room went into a comfortable silence.

Olivia took this time to glance at Julian, but just as her eyes landed on the vampire, he lunged forward, completely startling the young girl. In that split moment, she also felt the man beside her tense slightly.

When Julian was closer, he suddenly paused and picked up one of the glass cups that stood on top of the table positioned opposite Olivia.

Picking up Olivia's now empty and used glass, he leaned back into his seat, "My apologies. How uncouth of me to drink out of the bottle."

Slowly, he poured the liquor into the glass cup until it was half full, before putting the bottle back on to the table. Julian eyed the pair in front of him but paid no heed to their unpleasant expressions.

He swirled the liquor around for a while before lifting it up to his lips.

Except, instead of downing the drink, or even taking a sip in this case, Julian's red and moist tongue swept around the rim of the cup. His dark crimson eyes fixed solely onto Olivia as he carried out his actions.

Olivia felt a cold shiver run down her back as she watched him. An array of feelings assaulted her but only one was prominent at the moment: disgust.

It wasn't only her either. Alexander continued to watch his brother's foolish actions from his chair, his jaw was tightly locked. He felt something boiling in the pit of his stomach yet he could not bring himself to voice it out. The air around him became pressured, heavy and dark.

Julian finally took a small sip from the glass before placing it back on the table.

"Huh… it seems that I prefer to drink out of the bottle instead," Julian jested as he reached for the bottle once more.

Olivia averted her eyes once he placed the cup back on the table. She quickly calmed her mind before sitting nonchalantly once again.

Alexander, on the other hand, quickly grew tired and annoyed of his brother's antics, "Whatever you came here to say, quickly spit it out. Stop talking round and round in circles."

Julian's eyes narrowed before a slanted smile broke out on his face, "Alright."

Before he continued again, he took another sip of liquor once more. He looked at his brother before him and then flitted towards the young girl opposite yet, Alexander did not send her out. Julian cocked an eyebrow.

"The Order are making an appearance at the charity event," A lazy drawl broke out.

Olivia's ears perked up at this point while Alexander stared straight at his brother, not saying a word.

Julian sighed but his face had long turned serious, "We received intel that the King himself had extended an invitation to them."

"The King…" Alexander repeated.

"Since when had they been communicating?" He questioned.

Olivia had looked back up at this point, her mind had long forgotten Julian's bizarre and disturbing actions.

"We don't know," Julian didn't refer to who this 'we' entailed, only, his eyes skimmed over the girl opposite before going back to Alexander.

"We neither know the extent of their relationship nor what one or the other thinks," Julian added on.

"What do you plan to do?" Alexander queried with deeply furrowed brows.

"That's not for you to know. I only came here to inform you," Julian gave an amicable smile as he stood up, straightening out his waistcoat.

Alexander watched on as his brother bid farewell in his own playful way before closing the door behind him, exactly the same way as he came in.

Quietly, Olivia muttered absentmindedly, "Things seemed to have gotten interesting."

"Indeed they have," Alexander replied after a while, his dark gaze landing on the lone glass cup sitting atop the wooden table.