A Beautiful New Wonderland

~{04}~

Anderson: 

I felt bad for the lass. I didn't mean to blab, it just happened.

" Look at you, a Scotsman with the Gift of Gab! The girl was putty in our hands, fool!"

" I didn't know! Besides, she seems nice, you know, for an American." 

" Are you serious, right now? You think she's nice?" 

" I do. I genuinely think we could have a new era with her, one of peace and companionship in Christianity. We don't know for sure if she's Protestant, but I know she's at the least Christian, otherwise she wouldn't have the job she has. Integra was a woman of many things, but she was at the least Christian, and would've wanted her daughter to be the same." 

" We don't know that for sure, Anderson. For all we know she's a heathen, like her putrid father, the Witcher of New England. I will never understand why Integral stooped so low as to sleep with her help and a soldier, but I guess even strong willed women can break to pressure." 

" I mean, one, don't bad mouth the girls father. He did raise her after all, and he isn't here to defend himself. Two, he's a damn good hunter with a legend as vast and as powerful as my own and of the vampires, so Integra chose well, weakness and pressure aside. And three, even if she is, it still could be an open chance to start over, to bury the age old hatchet and move on." 

" You're being adamant about this. Why?" 

" I just think it's a good idea. I know to you I don't seem intelligent, but damn it, I have a masters degree. I didn't spend 8 years is college just to be told that my business degree was wrong!" 

" True, and your gut, however misplaced it is, is usually right." 

" Exactly. I say we be nice, give her a chance to come into her own, and be helpful. She's diving nose first into a world she knows nothing about, poor lass. Last thing we need to be is mean, or worse, manipulative and sinister, especially when she clearly has a decent friendship with Alucard already formed." 

" Fair point. Even after all this time, you're still my mentor, huh?" 

" Always will be, if you're willing to learn, Rico."

I hear footsteps, and in Alice walks. Her stride was the same as her father's; Strong, sure, powerful, and bossy. Her mother had a lady's laze to the same walk, making it easier to fall into the trap of venom she had. 

" Ok, I've had a moment to digest, I called my Dad, and now I'm willing to talk. As for treaties, I know nothing about them, so for now, I'll ask a kindness and leave them be until I can give them a look over and figure out if they need updating or if they should be kept as is." 

" That is perfectly fair, Miss Johnson." 

" Please, call me Alice, I insist."

" Well, Alice, if you'd like, as an olive branch, I'd be willing, alongside Alu-" 

"-His name Vlad Dracula. Please use it. I'm not my Mother, nor my ancestors. I won't bully him into being subservient. He had every right to run after my mother's passing, and chose to stay of his own accord, even making a vow on her deathbed. The least that can be done is to give the man his namesake back." 

" Ah, well, ok, I can try. Years of an old habit are hard to break." 

" You'll learn. And as for your offer, as I know where it will end, I would love the help. All I ask is while you are here, you keep in mind Matthew 10:14, please, as I am not a Christian, nor have I ever been. It was actually one of the few things my parents fought on, but in the end my mother caved on due to how it let me see the world from a much different lenses. I was baptized once but I don't think it counts given it was an Evangelical church and I had been kidnapped my my neighbor to do it."