Precisely no one waited for us.

The party was already in full swing by the time we wandered in. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that vampires wait for nothing when they sense an opportunity to throw a big garish celebration. The food is amazing, the outfits beautiful, the music- eh, the music is fine I guess. Not really my style.

There’s much congratulations and people eagerly asking when Arsen and I will make it official now that he’s ‘won’ me. I’m struggling to get into the party mood. This still doesn’t feel like a victory. And knowing how Arsen won…

Niko doesn’t arrive until the party has been under way for several hours. He storms in, his arm in a sling, and judging by the medical vamps hurrying after him he just woke up and came straight here.

The crowd parts for him as he heads directly towards where Arsen and I are standing near the front of the room. He marches directly up to Arsen and throws a wild punch which Arsen ducks easily.

“Cheater!” he declares. “Liar! I don’t know how you did it but I swear to God-”

“How I did what?” Arsen asks, face hardening into a mask of anger. “Kicked your scrawny little ass? Cause I can give you a demonstration any time, buddy.”

“Prince Niko!” One of the Baetal Elders who accompanied Nikolai thrusts himself between the two men.

“May I remind you,” he says. “That you are no longer protected by the terms of the duel. If you attack this man now it will be considered an act of war!”

“I will let it be war before I allow this to stand!” Niko shouts. “He has defamed one of our oldest traditions and stolen what is rightfully mine!”

“I haven’t stolen shit,” Arsen yells. “Except maybe your balls, if you’re going to come at me with this sore loser bullshit!”

“Prince Niko,” the Elder points out. “That is an extremely serious accusation. Do you have any proof?”

“Only that there’s no way in hell that was a fair fight,” Niko says, face turning red. “You all saw how crazy he went! He was clearly on something!”

“Without proof, my prince- “

“To hell with proof! Sasha! You were there next to me! He would have killed you too! Tell them!”

I freeze as Niko turns his burning stare on me, demanding I tell the truth. Arsen is stiff beside me, carefully not looking in my direction. My heart races. Should I…?

“I- I don’t know,” I finally stammer, not looking Niko in the eye. “I mean, I’ve never really seen him fighting before, so…”

Niko shouts in wordless frustration and flips a refreshment table. There are shrieks from several vampires as they dodge the flying food and hurry to stamp out the flames from the candles.

“This isn’t over!” he declares, and glares at me. “I will see you again.”

He storms out, accompanied by the rest of the Baetal envoy. Oddly enough, I feel a tinge of betrayal, not towards me, but from me. I may want to be with Arsen, but the Baetal are my blood—at least now they are. The party watches them go in stunned silence. When the door slams behind him, the murmurs start, and the sideways glances at Arsen.

“You alright?” Arsen asks, turning to put his hands on my shoulders.

“I’m fine,” I say quickly, shaking my head.

He pulls me into a tight hug in order to whisper in my ear.

“Thanks for being on my side.”

I smile at him, but my stomach is still tying itself in knots.

I know Arsen’s reasons. Why he would sacrifice so much. It’s personal and I get it. He’s a leader and in desperate times, people have to make hard choices. But. . . this all still feels wrong. And I wish he hadn’t cheated. I wish he could still be this perfect good guy in my eyes, but he isn’t perfect. He made a mistake, the question is, is this the last one?

I excuse myself from the party early and retreat to the lab. I still feel more comfortable there than anywhere else in the compound. Maybe I can sort out how I’m feeling with some peace and quiet.

I end up spending most of the evening there, running more tests on the protein I isolated. Nothing useful yet, but that’s how these kind things go. Unless I have a miracle breakthrough, it could be months at least before I have something worth testing on people. Still, it’s nice to distract myself from my other problems for a while and focus on the plague killing half of my new species.

It’s late when I finally give up and decide to get some rest. My bruises from the fight are aching and I could use a long hot soak in the bath. But first I need food. I remember a snack machine in the same building as the banquet hall and it isn’t far away, so I shuffle in that direction, yawning.

The party clearly ended not too long ago. A few couples are still lurking around, making out in the grey, pre-dawn light. The banquet hall is a mess that someone will have to clean up tomorrow. I hope I’m not on that chore list.

I can see the glow of the snack machine around the corner when I hear the whir of its motor. Someone’s beaten me to it.

“-can’t let him get away with disrespecting you like that!” someone is saying.

“I kicked his ass once, I can do it any time.”

Recognizing Arsen’s voice, I pause. I’m not sure I’m ready to confront him just yet. My feelings are still a pretty tangled mess. As I hesitate, Arsen continues talking.

“And once we get Sasha’s blood, the whole Baetal clan will be begging at our feet.”

My breath catches, hoping he didn’t mean that the way it sounded.

“We’ll be the only ones with the cure,” he goes on, confirming my fears. “If they want to survive, they’ll have to answer to us.”

My legs weak, I lean against the wall near me, trying to convince myself I’m hearing this wrong.

“And it’s not just that,” says someone else. “Tell them what you told me about the powers!”

“We don’t know for sure if it’ll work yet,” Arsen says, eagerness in his voice. “But we think her blood will do more than just cure us. We think because she was bit by a Baetal it’ll convey their blood powers to us also. We won’t just be the only clan free of the virus, we’ll also be the only clan with two abilities.”

“Does she know?” The first guys asks. “I mean, is she on board with all this?”

“No, she doesn’t know anything yet,” Arsen replies. “You’ve seen how she is. She’d make a big fuss about it. Once she’s my mate and part of the clan I’ll tell her. I can’t risk her running off, you know?”

“Man, I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes when she finds out. You won’t be hitting that for a while.”

“We’ll see. We’re dynamite together. She can’t resist me, man.”

I don’t stay to hear the rest. I can hear them moving and I know they’ll come around the corner soon and see me. I leave as quickly and quietly as I can and head straight to my room.

My heart aches and my head is pounding. Claudette was right. He was just using me the whole time. He would have forced me to be with him, and then made me give the cure only to him and his clan. Exactly the same as Niko. Except Niko at least had the decency to be up front about it. He never lied to me or played with my emotions. God, I’ve been such an idiot. I knew something felt wrong, I knew it…

I stop, pushing the heels of my palms into my eyes to try and suppress the tears trying to overtake me. I don’t have time for crying right now. The sun will be up in an hour or two and I have somewhere to be. I can’t stay here. I can’t stay with him after this. Cheating in the contest was bad enough to make me question things, but this, knowing I was just a tool for him to grab power, it’s too much.

I shove my handful of belongings into a bag and leave, silently and without running into anyone. I make only a brief pit stop at the lab to collect my samples and experiment results. And then I’m gone, heading back to the Baetal compoun. To Niko.

He opens the door looking like I stopped him just as he was heading to bed, and not happy about it, but his grumpy expression dissipates as he sees the bag I’m carrying.

“You were right,” I say before he can ask. “Arsen cheated. The contest is void. And I choose you.”