Eternal Night

(I) Chapter 28: Clarity

Something had changed in Francesca.

The problem was Rémy couldn't figure out what had caused it.

His sister had always been a healthy balance of exuberant spirit and graceful self-mastery – the former aspect of her personality having been nurtured over the centuries by her sire and mentor –Señor Eduardo de Meirás – whom they hadn't seen in some years. The latter, however, was owed to her upbringing as the daughter of a duke and the overall influence of her aunt and uncle in the last couple of decades.

The Frankie he was most accustomed to was the embodiment of self-discipline with an an ever-simmering undercurrent of passion, always in control of herself and never to be governed... unless he was crossed. Then all bets were off. But something about her person at present was blatantly off. It was as if she was undergoing a sort of taming or transformation, something Rémy had been absently noticing over the last few days, but never had it been more obvious than last night.

After she had disappeared into the kitchen with her laptop later in the evening, she had emerged a short time later only to inform her brother that she was heading home early. He had asked if she was all right but she couldn't even hold his gaze for more than two seconds – another strange occurrence.

"I'm alright," she had assured him. "Just tired."

"Are you feeding regularly?" he then asked, his concern genuine. "Carmen's been telling me that you still aren't feeding as often as you should and that you're still drinking mostly cloned human blood – not enough of the real stuff. Too much cloned hemo isn't good for you, Frank."

But she had shut him down immediately.

"I'm fine," she had insisted, and then with an awkward pat on his shoulder, she had disappeared into the night.

Rémy had been certain that his sister would return the following evening her usual on-the-mend self, but to his surprise, she dropped by Carmen's just as quiet and unnerved as she had been the night previous – if not worse. She had eyed the place carefully upon entry before immediately bee-lining for the kitchen. She then picked up something she had left behind yesterday, was gone once again without a word.

Rémy would have dismissed it. He had learned ages ago that any attempts in understanding the strange moods of the fairer sex were futile, particularly where his sister was concerned. Based on personal experience, she rarely talked to anyone about what was going on in her life in great detail – his last discussion with Carmen had proved that that much was still the case. Not even Lyra had gotten anything of importance out of her recently. His automatic assumption was that she only did this because they were approaching the anniversary of the deaths of their mutual friend, Derek Mikelson, and their Aunt Cece.

Unknown to Rémy, however, the dearly departed were the last persons on Frankie's mind. In fact, her thoughts and energy had been entirely overrun by none other than Vlad Leinhart.

The man's forward actions the night previous, coupled with the dreams Frankie was now having of the man any time she closed her eyes for any extended period of time, had forced the woman to mentally acknowledge not only her deepening regard for him, but to also reevaluate the entirety of her situation. She had always assumed Leinhart's teasing and playful harassment were borne out of a need for dominance, but never could she have dreamed they'd be out of sincerity and earnest. Never could she have imagined that that particular man would ever take such a seemingly genuine interest in her, and certainly not with the level of intensity he had displayed when worshipping her hand.

The last handful of Frankie's previous relationships had all taken years to develop and it was usually friendship that gave way to physical attraction and the subsequent sexual tension. With Leinhart, however, it was proving the reverse. They were no great friends by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, she had known him now for a couple of months, but she could not dismiss his earlier treatment of her – the way he had insulted her upon their first acquaintance, how he continued to question and push and pry and tease.