I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 94 - Ass of Me and You

"What do you mean we have to assassinate Lady Enrichetta?" Artmond asked, because of course he did.

They were all cleaned up, having used Sigismund soap stone to have a bath each. They sat around a small cooking fire, drying out their hair and preparing something to eat when talk had turned to this new mission they had just acquired.

Evangeline held up the scroll she got from the rogue boss. "It's what she is asking about in the scroll. Only it's not a request for information like she said," Evangeline explained . "She's written that vampire speech in between the lines in Common, to compel anyone who reads this scroll to follow through on the assassination attempt without realizing why."

"It's dramatic, diabolical, unnecessarily complicated, which makes it a hundred percent Reverie," Valerian added, flinging a piece of sewer lichen into their fire to hiss and pop. "It's honestly a miracle she has survived so long."

"Do you know why she would want Lady Enrichetta... removed?" Sigismund asked, not accusatory as per her norm, but deeply concerned.

Valerian tapped his fingers on his crossed arms as he took a moment to think. "Very likely, she plans to be at the right place at the right time to intervene. To turn Enrichetta into one of us," he finally said. "A vampire."

That made the whole party jump.

"What the hell man?!" Harrowheart declared.

"What benefit would that bring?" Artmond asked.

"I would think it's obvious," Sigismund snarled. "Vampires enthrall their children, control them."

"A powerful move to control the whole region, claim the queen as it were," Hagor said.

"You play chess?" Harrowheart asked, surprised.

"I've been known," he agreed.

"Oh, I play too. Everyone says I don't look like I would so I love surprising them and fleecing them good. We should play..."

"I really don't think that would go over very well," Artmond said, staring at the spot Valerian's moss had burned up, not even realizing he was interrupting. Evangeline had never seen Artmond's gaze so long.

"Oh, you think?" Valerian sneered, but Artmond lifted a hand.

"I'm not saying I have any particular feelings for killing my fiancé exactly, I mean outside of the normal ones about, you know, not killing people in general."

Evangeline was surprised. "I had no idea you felt this way," she said, which was very true since she had never played this mission.

But then how did this whole incident in the game actually turn out, she questioned. She couldn't readily remember and probably wouldn't until she burned more Meta points.

"Artmond," Sigismund scolded. Alarmed she put a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off, not angrily, but in a detached way. He seemed so very calm.

He stared into their little fire a bit longer, then nodded as he decided something. "I don't want to marry Lady Enrichetta--"

"Stop it!" Sigismund snapped, standing up abruptly. "You're overwrought emotionally. This whole conversation is pointless. We will go to Lady Enrichetta and warn her when we can approach her house once it's night. Even though the sun's still up, I suggest we all get some long rest now."

Hagor nodded, "We can expect a long night ahead I think."

"It would be a way out for you, Arty," Valerian interjected, not ready for the party meeting to end. "You won't to get locked down to someone you don't want to stay with. Death do you part, as they say." He grinned and all Evangeline could think was, Do you have a low mileage car to sell him as well?

No one answered. The blood loss was having its toll on the whole party.

"Well, wait. Did we agree or not? Are we actually going to kill noblewoman or not?" Harrowheart asked, the only one who wasn't suffering blood loss. Without further discussion, the rest of the party dissipated to their various sleeping pallets. She turned to Evangeline, throwing her hands up. All Evangeline could do herself was shrug, giving her a smile and a shake of her head.

Harrowheart scoffed, slapped her hands on her thighs and went over to her own alcove to do whatever she did there.

Evangeline glanced over at Artmond as he sat with his back toward Sigismund's back. They were very poignantly not saying a word to each other, even though their pallets were still side by side in the furthest alcove.

"I'd love to be a mind reader right now, to figure out what those two are thinking," Valerian commented. When Evangeline flinched then looked at him, his snarky smile faltered a moment, along with a bob of his eyebrows. "What?" he asked.

"I didn't realize you were still sitting here. I thought you slunk away with everyone else," she said.

"I don't 'slunk,'" he said with mock offense. "I 'stealth' like a dignified rogue."

"What is it you want, Valerian?" she asked, with a tired sigh.

"Ah, our passion has grown cold already?" he said, leaning an elbow on one knee as he looked at her sideways. A sort of playful submission, like he was showing her his belly to be rubbed. But it felt so... false to Evangeline.

She mirrored him, putting her own elbow onto her knee, propping her head on her head as she regarded him. "You don't actually like me do you?"

Valerian's face didn't shift, the smile even grew more.

Social Skill: Insight. Success.

His smile reached his eyes, warm and genuine. "Don't take it the wrong way, I don't like anyone. Not even myself. But I enjoy you. And I have your back. I can also have you on your back right now?"

She wasn't going to lie. That made her blush.

"Yeah, but that isn't the same is liking me," she insisted. Her heart pounded in her chest. What she was saying felt dangerous. Like... she was going off script.

"But you like me? Don't you?"

Just then, Evangeline's Meta points began to tingle.