I'm writing this second chapter much quicker than any other chapter I have ever written because the fabulous Amy-vampire1 has gotten my mind spinning!

Thank you for your support!

Warning: mild mentions of passionate encounters…

Enjoy!


The only sound in the room was the rustling of papers.

Amelie signed one piece, passing it to her right in silence for Oliver to sign it.

Both continued this pattern until the silence was bad enough to be palpable.

"Leave us," Oliver said gruffly to the guards. They nodded politely and left Amelie's office. They worked in silence again; Oliver thought of how to phrase his question. "Claire- that name, why did you choose it for your daughter?"

"It is a French name; means bright and clear. I wanted my daughter to have a bright life, and a clear conscious. My father took that from her," Amelie looked over the paper she was currently signing. "Myrnin, he stayed behind. He gave me my dead child to hold and wiped the tears from my eyes. He asked me her name."

Oliver scuffed. He rolled his eyes once and read over the paper Amelie had just read, saying, "If that monster ever did one thing good in his life it might've been that. You need to initial here." Oliver handed back the paper, pointing to the blank.

"Thank you," Amelie replied.

"Who was the child's father, if you don't mind me asking?"

-0-0-

Amelie moaned into the night air. Her hair, wet with sweat, clung to her forehead.

"Yessss," the man seethed into her ear; gently nipping at her earlobe.

"Ooh!" Amelie whispered in a rush, her nails digging into the man's back. Her hips arched, her body was presses against his. The man smiled and bit her neck sending her over the edge.

-0-0-

Amelie sat in the library. She flipped through an old parchment book. Drawings of all her suitors and family members filled each page. Amelie elegantly sipped her blood from a dark crystal wine glass. She read through her notes on each suitor. The curvy, slanted writing barely even being recognized as her own.

Back when she had time and was locked in her room, avoiding her hungry father's grasp, she drew. Each and ever family member first, then all her suitors. She traced the face of one man, sketched roughly in charcoal. He was still a mystery to her, but she knew she loved him.

He gave her a daughter.

He gave her a 'good time'.

He gave her a reason to live.

Lines were blurred from the past tears shed over the lover. Lines blurred now as tears fell.

"Who was he?" Oliver asked, cocking his head to the side to look better over her shoulder.

Amelie set the wine glass down, and closed the book quickly. Wiping the remnants of tears from her eyes. "Just someone from my past," Amelie whispered.

Oliver walked around the chair she was currently curled up in to stand in front of her.

"There was someone before Sam, wasn't there?"

"There were many before Sam. I am, after all, one of the oldest vampires still alive."

"After you were turned, did you ever try to… kill yourself?" Oliver asked, slowly sinking into the chair next to her.

"I did. I had many things to die for; my child was dead, I was eating my people, and my father was prying on my weakness. I almost got away with it a couple times, my father wouldn't allow me to do so though. Myrnin was actually my suicide aid," Amelie said more matter-of-fact like than with sadness.

Oliver nodded slowly, staring over the towers and towers of books that filled the room.

"Have you ever read all of these?"

"Oh yes. The ones on the shelves are the ones I have read. That pile over there," Amelie said pointing to the three piles of five books in front of her, "are the ones that I have yet to read. Again, I have been around for many more human lifetimes than one would think." Amelie chuckled slightly, taking a sip from the wine glass.

"Claire," Oliver whispered, as if he was testing the name. "That is a beautiful name, your majesty."

-0-0-

The race was on, man against the rising sun. The man ran with inhuman speed through the gates of Amelie's town and into the desert.

"My dear, the systems are almost ready," Myrnin whispered. He was in one of the most extravagant outfits she had yet to see him in. A hot pick 'I heart Texas' tee-shirt and traffic orange shorts burned her eyes.

Amelie stood on her balcony which was still being built, her dark trench coat blocking her skin from the warm rays of the ring sun.

"We need that gate to be up and working now. I can't bare to watch another run from the town without them being stopped. Minds need to be erased. Myrnin, we are losing control of an unbuilt town."

"Yes, your majesty. It's just- I just need- I need more help. There are a lot of things that need to be built and tested. I need smart people, and I need them now," Myrnin demanded.

Amelie let out a long sigh, "Rome wasn't built in a day." She looked over the land again. Bricks were being mortared to the formation of walls.

"I take it he visited then," Myrnin asked, knowing that the tiresome, vulnerable, and dangerously unpredictable Amelie was always visible at her mysterious lover's visits. Always at nights, and always with the same word to let her know it was him, yet he knew she doesn't know the man.

"It is none of your business," Amelie snapped, her red eyes turned on him. She was hungry. The town's building was ceasing due to the sun. Young vampires were assigned the harder jobs, they were stronger then, but their death toll was taking a number on production and population.

It was then that Amelie declared it a chess match against an unknown opponent.

The young vampires were pawns.

She was a queen.

Myrnin was the most guarded king.

His brain was working centuries ahead and millenniums behind his time. He truly was a piece to save and protect.

-0-0-

"Her name was Claire," Oliver thought to himself as he paced the floor of his bedroom.

Maybe it was time Oliver made a move on the chess board they had going.

Maybe it was time that Amelie's lover made another appearance. Both could surely use it at her confessions.


Please review!