Adela Augusta Blood Famine

Chapter Three

Adela

Adela spun a quill pen between her slender fingers. The lavish plume every bit as boisterous and extravagant as the red room that encompassed them. These kinds of briefings were never enough to hold her attention, despite her honest attempts at consciousness. In important meetings regarding neighboring kingdom affairs, it was often her duty to pay attention, record, and be able to recount all that was said. As to why this was her job was a total mystery to Adela, since her father was fully aware of her memory loss problem. However Aquilo never did something without reason, if he saw her fit for the job, who was she to object. Besides, the public responded to her fairly well, especially for a vampire. Even so these were the tedious tasks she hoped to avoid.

Luckily for Adela, her retainer Squealer as she had named him, appeared to be more handy with a pen than a sword. He was meticulously writing down every word said in that room, for better or worse. This allowed her to spend more time trying to fill in the holes of her mind, than playing connect the dots for Crichton's problems.

Adela stopped twirling the pen eyeing it suspiciously. She wondered. The quill tip touched the forearm of her glove gently. It had quite a large and sharp end, it was unlike any quills they used back in Teyron. The Aquilo way that influenced her home land was that of simplicity and class. Not like the blender of intricate designs that plagued her eyes, when she looked around the room. Adela's visual senses came to rest on something less appealing than the chamber. The annoyed face of master Kres's highest appointed Lord Kratz. He resembled Kres closely, with the same greasy black ponytail, and pointed goatee, however his face was much more round. He must have been more unfit back in his days before vampirism. Though It was equally likely that he over indulged in feeding as well, causing him to swell like a blood tick. Either way his face reminded her of Kres, which was odd, because she couldn't recall actually meeting with him in decades. If he needed to discuss important matters with her country, it was her father that spoke to him directly. If it was lesser matters, then Kres sent Kratz to talk to her. Apparently the time of a high lord was much too precious to waste.

Kratz cleared his throat loudly, grabbing Adela's attention. His near yellow eyes bore into her, with impatience. "Mistress Adela, are you listening to me at all?"

"Of course." She lied, rolling her eyes. Most vampires from Crichton, whether from Kres or Kratz bothered her, but Lord Kratz did so on a whole different level. Years ago for whatever reason, Kratz came on to her, only he was used to getting his way. His attempts at intimate relations, courting, and even marriage had gotten out of hand. It couldn't be proven, but there had even been an attempted kidnapping, that Adela swore was done on his order. The abduction ended poorly. She was thankful Zeva had been there but she also wished she had left some of her would be captors alive for questioning.

Kratz stood up throwing his red cape behind him, he had sat very little this whole time, instead favoring pacing back and forth across the floor. "Then what did I just say?"

"Do not treat me like a child." Adela's voice carried a tone of boredom, which served to only annoy Kratz more.

"Then please! Pay attention to me."

Adela dropped her pen and propped her chin in her hands, starring in a mocking gesture.

"I ask that you take this seriously, this plague is a danger to all vampire kind!"

"So far the disease has only been documented in Crichton right?"

"That is correct." Kratz responded, bitterly.

"So that means there has been no records of it in the north western province of Aeron, nor any in the southern province of Mallory?"

"Correct."