It was hard to ignore, the palace of Tenea. Beautiful, but gaudy in comparison to the stone castles that were scattered about the hills of his beloved home. It wasn’t really wise to come close to the place, not when he knew they had knights dedicated to hunting his kind. Tenea in general was a bit of a strange place when it came to that. The vampires within the area had been either chased out or killed, the humans had completely toppled the French monarchy, forced it underground. There were those like his sire who sought to see the area governed again, neighbouring monarchs who demanded they just take back what had been theirs. And then there were those like himself, who didn’t bother with the politics but were curious about the whole ordeal, despite the danger.
And yet Jamie found it hard to resist the tall garden walls, found his gaze lingering on the foliage that peeked from over it. It was no doubt a beautiful garden, something Rose would only dream of having. He’d heard whisperings from women in the market about how the lilac bushes were full, how there were several statues dedicated to the people’s deities.
He’d blame boredom, not the recklessness that his sire often chastised him for, that led him to climbing said wall.
Besides, he was quicker than anything within the walls and it was late, nobody would see him and he’d finally quench his curiosity about the place, maybe even press a flower to send back to Rose.
And maybe, just maybe, he was there in hopes of catching a bite from “the help”. Catch a stray stable hand, a maid scurrying back to her chambers. The pickings for feeding had to be calculated here, he couldn’t just pick off someone at the pub or grab someone from the market. Everything had to be careful, he couldn’t take anyone from the same spot, couldn’t risk drinking too much. It’d been a drastic change to his diet, had left him somewhat on edge.
So maybe that could be blamed for the recklessness.
Silently landing on the other side of the wall, Jamie took in the greenery. It was lush, well tended to, he could see that even in the moonlight. It was unlike any garden he’d ever seen. Small blue flowers, the same that threatened to spill over the wall were draped over hedges, over stone fountains. He walked quietly, kept to the shadows just off the path. He could hear people from the palace, but the only sounds he could hear in the garden was water running, rustling of a soft breeze.
He passed rose bushes in full bloom that had no doubt been meticulously pruned, was careful not to let the thorns catch on the black silk of his shirt. Rose might want one of them, maybe he’d pluck one and press it between the pages and bring it back to Scotland. He was about to pick a full red bloom when something to his left further down the path caught his attention. A rustle too deliberate to just be the wind, a twitch of his nostrils saw past the various florals and led him to a deliciously rich B+.
It was enough to make him lower his hand from the rose bush and rush towards the smell.
Among the lilac blooms, a young woman with hair dark and wild down her back, wearing some dainty slip of a dress nearly the same color as the flowers she tended to. Pretty, high cheeks, a frame that reminded him of a bird.
His fangs ached in his gums just looking at her.
“Bit late tae be oot, int it?” His voice was a casual purr as he leaned against a statue near the bushes, some saint he imagined. Purposefully, Jamie kept his gaze off of her, his attention turned to faint scratches on his free hand. From the rose bush in his haste no doubt. “Pretty thing like ye cannae sleep?” They were already healing, but the faint lines of scarlet incited something in him, brought about that all too familiar ache in his throat. His eyes looked to her, raked over her exposed collarbones, settled on the hollow of her throat, an almost wolfish grin stretching the corners of his lips. @hermajestyvengeance