Thanks to Carly for betaing

Dawn's mind was in a complete whirl of what she had just scene and witnessed. Had the gentle but naïve king revealed himself to be a Machiavellian? It was all an act? She thought it over and the more she thought, logically putting emotions to the side, she realized it made so much sense. Like any other, the vampire court could tear a person to shreds, even the king. He would not be as in control as he was if he was a mere puppet.

Also his father...if his father had been that cruel to his own wife she could only imagine what he would have done to his son. Dragos would have had to learn cruelty early on. In a way it was a wonder that Dragos wasn't a complete monster.

Unless he was just very good at hiding it.

This made a chill run up her spine. The kindness...the gentleness...what if it was all just a lie? An illusion? Something inside her grew heavy at the thought. All his affection and kindness to her was just a lie? All those gentle smiles and sweet words...just a way of manipulation? She started to feel her blue eyes perk up with water. Then she stopped herself.

"What the hell am I crying over? I never cared about him...I am not one of those silly girls who get caught up over a handsome and charming man." Then she turned red. Had she outwardly described the king as handsome and charming? She inwardly slapped herself. She put her hand to her temple and rubbed it.

"I always thought of myself better than those foolish girls who are charmed so easily be men...looks like I have been wrong about my own nature. Am I just like any other girl?" she wondered out loud. Then she wiped her eyes clear and forced herself to hold back any tears.

It didn't matter what she felt about Dragos' true nature. It was probably better this way. No, it was better this way. She could just cast aside any foolish female emotion and get right back to her plans of trying to escape.

But this presented another problem.

Would Dragos choose her for the ball now that he had revealed himself to her?

The wheels in her mind began to spin as she thought back to that conversation.

"Oh, I am telling you this because I know you will use this against me and I want to see what your clever mind will come up with."

It was a declaration, she came to realize. He wanted her to go up against him. For what reasons, God only knew. But what mattered now was that she passed. She had to pass. Dawn walked the corridors to the library with her book in her arms as she thought more and more.

She had to do something. Something that he would not see coming, but what? The blonde lost herself in thought. So lost in thought Dawn was that she barely registered the slaves who were scrubbing the floor. But either by fate or sheer luck, pieces of the conversation drifted toward her ears.

"How many months has it been since the first piece of silver went missing?" asked a slave with curly red hair and a very pale freckled complexion. Dawn guessed she was in her late teens.
"Too many. You know...it has to be one of us," answered the other slave, a black girl with the sides of her hair tied into puffs who Dawn guessed to also be around her late teens. An exchange of fear passed between the two women.

"How long..." whispered the pale skinned girl with obvious worry in her tone, "do you think it will go on before the vampires start getting suspicious and end up punishing us?"

The dark skinned girl looked away, as if not sure what to answer. "I don't know, Sarah." She gave a sig, before going back to scrubbing the tiled floor. "You know those vampires will use any excuse to hurt humans, especially black ones like me."

"Oh, Cynthia! I really hope whoever it is gets caught soon. I don't want to see you or anyone else hurt! I am really scared." And how clear it was that the ginger was scared, her voice trembling. "You know how much I love you, Cynthia, right? You are like a sister to me."

Cynthia did not respond to this declaration of love and friendship. If anything she looked like she couldn't care less. How ungrateful, thought Dawn. Having a friend in this world was one of the greatest blessings. How could this Cynthia girl just throw it away? The blonde just shook her head.

Humans should have been working together, not taking each other for granted. She decided that was enough eaves dropping and made her way to the library. But her mind kept coming back to the conversation. So there was a thief in the castle. A thief. A thief that was likely going to get their fellow humans killed, if they were a human slave. Of course, it probably was. A slave would have plenty of time to steal during their work, and any vampire who came into the palace was far too rich to risk stealing an item.

Her blue eyes widened as a plan began to sprout in her head. A slightly crazed smile came over her face, as she picked up her feet to rush over to the library. When she reached her destination she quickly put her book in the drop off area without even looking through one shelf of books.

Anyone who knew Dawn would realize how far away her mind was. The blonde never missed an opportunity to look at books.

If her plans went right she wouldn't have time to read. But much to her frustration she would have to wait until the next day to set her plans into motion. She had a restless sleep that day with her head still spinning with plans, but eventually exhaustion won out.

She hated the thought that she would have to wait until she met with her guardian and later Alex...and hopefully his mother. The next night, she was up earlier than she should have been, but she didn't care about how bright the setting sun was or anything. She just paced around her room as she thought over what to say to her guardian. Her plan sounded mad once it was spoken out loud, and she would have to work every charming bone in her body to convince her ever conservative guardian.

She finally slipped on a green dress and did her hair up with a matching green ribbon, making sure she was perfect in the mirror before going outside her chambers. She was pleased to run into Snow on the way to breakfast. The girls pleasantly greeted one another before heading down to breakfast, together.

"You caused quite the scandal, yesterday."

Dawn gave a grimace at that. "I am sorry if that troubled you, Snow," she replied, not wanting to risk her only female friend's favor.

Snow gave a bit of a smirk of that. "Actually, it came as quite a breath of fresh air at the table. Usually, I am so bored by all those girls trying to flatter the king that I am contemplating stabbing myself in the eye with a butter knife just for the sake of making things interesting." There was not a hint of sarcasm in her tone. Though Dawn knew she couldn't possibly be serious...right? But now that she thought about it the pale skinned girl rarely changed tones in the first place. Hmm...she wondered why.

"But," Snow said, interrupting her thoughts, "I think the person who enjoyed it the most was His Majesty. I don't think he is as innocent as he looks."

Dawn bit back the urge to respond with what had happened yesterday. She needed to not burden her friend with the truth. Besides that, Drago's challenge had been for her, no one else. As far as she knew at least.

Finally, they reached the breakfast hall. Dawn decided not to sit so close to the king today and instead in the middle with Snow. The girls began talking as the other candidates began pouring in. She took slight notice of the fact that many of the girls were now shooting eye daggers at her, the reason their humiliation in front of the king yesterday.

The blonde mentally just shrugged it off. Any sabotage they could possibly do to her didn't matter in the end. Her rival wasn't them, it was the king. Speaking of King Dragos, he made his appearance. He gave his usual kind greeting to the candidates before taking his seat. Dawn side glanced at the king. Dragos just looked so innocent there. A boy in the body of a man, but now she knew under that lamb's wool lurked a wolf.

The only question was whether she was the sheep dog or the sheep itself. Well, she wasn't going to wait for him to decide. She was about to turn her focus back to Snow, when a familiar but annoying voice interrupted her.

"Good morning, Dawn!" came a far too cheerful voice for a 'rival'. But only in Cecile's mind. Dragos had never paid any special attention to her so she was not a true rival to her. But let the stupid girl think that way.

"Good morning to you, Cecile. I hope you enjoyed your rest." Dawn replied using her fake cheerful voice. Then to Dawn's slight surprise, Cecile took the seat directly across from her instead of her usual position of right beside the king. The blonde raised a brow. So the little bitch had a trick up her sleeve. Likely to try to pull her out of the king's favor. It didn't matter, though.

Her rival was Dragos, not Cecile or any of the other consorts.

"So Dawn," began the strawberry blonde, "I hear that when you went to the library yesterday to return your book, you didn't check out another."

Now Dawn had to hide the look of surprise from her face. So the bitch had friends in high places, did she? For once, Dawn was not curious to see what pathetic plot that Cecile would try now.

"Oh, yes. Well, the book I finished was close to a thousand pages. I just wanted to give my mind a rest before starting a new book," she responded as a servant laid her breakfast and tea before her.

"I admit I am surprised, Dawn," came the king's voice at the end of the table. She studied his tone. It was the same innocent one that she knew was a farce. She studied his expression for a moment, keeping her face as masked as possible. But she now knew he could see through it, just as she could now see through his. But she had to admit he was better at it than her. He had seen through her mask and she never even guessed he had one. For a moment she saw a glint of mischief in his eyes, a peek through the mask.

"Why are you surprised, Your Majesty?" She knew right now the king had put her into a mine field. Now he was testing her. Seeing what her "clever mind", as he put it, would do when she had to perform with him knowing it was all a lie, but not humiliating herself at the same time.

"Well, you seemed to love books so much. I know reading such a long book can be tiresome at the end, but I thought you were the type to pick an easier read."

She resisted the urge to smile, but she didn't know why for a moment. Then it came to her. The blonde was enjoying this game with him.

But why?

"Well, Your Majesty, no insult intended to you, but you have only seen me read one book here. So you really can't judge my reading habits since you have only seen me get through one book," she smoothly pointed out.

Dragos just smiled. She didn't know if it was because he was impressed with her act, or because she had somehow missed the mark.

"Ah, that is true. Forgive me, Dawn. But…" Here it came. The King took a too slow of a sip of his tea which only made the blonde's anticipation worse. "I couldn't help but wonder if something else was troubling you."

Finally, it came out. She thought over an answer and then one came to mind.

"Well, I couldn't help but hearing some palace slaves gossiping in the hallway. I didn't mean to eaves drop, but they mentioned something very interesting. They said there is a thief in the palace. One who is likely among the palace slaves."

She looked around, and saw the startled expressions of the other girls. Then she continued. "I was wondering why a slave would be suspected of such a thing, and then it made sense. Every single vampire in the palace is wealthy enough to have no need to steal. Even the palace guards are well paid. The palace slaves have many reasons to steal. Perhaps to sell it off, or as revenge against the vampire masters. So it makes perfect sense that it would be a palace slave." When she finished her explanation she took a long sip of tea, like Dragos had. A subtle mockery of His Majesty. She sat the delicate tea cup down.

"So it was possible that as my mind was drawing conclusions about who the thief might be that I didn't think about books. So there is a good chance you are correct, Your Majesty." She watched the king to notice any shifts in the mask. She was eager to see if she had won, or failed in his eyes. But much to her discouragement she could see no slips in his mask. Just a smile that she would have believed genuine if he hadn't revealed his true nature to her the day before.

"Why, Dawn, you are very clever to think of something like that. I am impressed." But she doubted that. It wasn't that hard to figure out with enough common sense.

"Is there really a thief in the palace?" asked another candidate with a worried tone in her voice.

Dragos' smiled changed to a more serious expression. "There is. I wanted to keep it hidden so as to not distress any of you. But I will tell you now that only the oldest and most trusted palace slaves are cleaning your rooms. I have not heard any reports of your things going missing, and if one of your maids was the thief then you would know by now."

With that the girl's fear seemed to be ease. But of course, the bitch saw an opportunity to make Dawn look bad.

"Oh, it seems that the secret you have hidden from us to comfort our minds has been broken. I pray, my lord, that this has not spoiled your breakfast."

Dawn caught a glimpse of Snow rolling her eyes, and the blonde could not resist having a smirk pass her lips for a moment.

King Dragos gave a light laugh. "No, my dear, it takes a lot more than that to spoil a moment for me. Like Dawn, you all would have probably heard it anyway. In fact, I think it is a good thing she brought it up. So now you all have my assurance that your possessions are safe and do not have to worry about it."

Cecile's mouth gaped open for a moment. But then she bowed her head. "Oh, you are right, Your Majesty." She then turned her head towards the rival sitting in front of her and shot her an icy glare.

Dawn gave her what would be best described as a "nice try, bitch" smile and finished her breakfast.

When she went back to her room, Dawn got a maid to summon Amaro for her. He entered and gave a proper bow to which Dawn curtsied.

"What have you called me for?" he asked, and Dawn bit her lip as she considered telling him a half-truth or the whole truth. In the end she decided he would need to whole truth to consider her mad plan.

"Last night...I had a very...interesting run in with the king."

This caught Amaro's attention immediately, him wondering what this would mean as a candidate. She then went on to describe her meeting with the king in vivid detail where his true nature was revealed. The blonde searched her guardian's eyes and expression for any sign of emotion, but found none.

"Then he said, 'I am telling you this because I know you will use it against me and want to see what your clever mind will come up with". She finished and looked at Amaro for his reaction. For a few moments he was silent, which cost Dawn her patience.

"Well?" she asked.

"I am not surprised," he stated simply. "I thought it was odd that a man with King Clymenus as a father could be so naïve and innocent. The fact it is all an act he is putting on makes perfect sense." He looked to the side.

"I should have realized it myself and warned you." Dawn put her hand under her chin and stroked it.

"It doesn't matter now. Right now Dragos has decided to put a challenge against me. But I won't wait for him to issue the challenge. I have decided to make my own. I have a plan, but you will think it is mad."

"Dawn, I already know you are partly mad. I doubt whatever your plan is will surprise me."

At his confidence Dawn gave a smirk. "I plan to go undercover as a palace slave and catch the thief myself."

At this her guardian's stoicism fell to pieces. His mouth dropped open and his brown eyes widened more than she thought humanly (or vampirely) possible. At this she couldn't help but smirk.

"Forget what I said about you being partly mad. I should have you locked away in a padded cell."

She crossed her arms. "The plan is insane, but that is the thing. It is so crazy that Dragos will never see it coming. This time I will be the one to catch him off-guard."

"Well, I can tell you that you defiantly caught me off guard," he said as he rubbed his temple.

"But the question is...will you help me?"

At this Amaro looked up at her with his deep brown eyes. There was uncertainty in his voice. "Just tell me first, how the hell do you plan to pull this off?"

Dawn knew she was enjoying catching her guardian off guard a bit too much. She began to go over the details of her plan to the still stunned warrior. The candidate wondered if he was even listening to her. But at the end of her plans he made his comment.

"And what if you are caught?"

"Dragos will probably find it more amusing than anything. I think he finds me too entertaining for him to let me go, at least just yet."

Amaro turned to the side and rubbed his temples again.

"Now here is the question. Will you help me? I plan to do this with or without your approval. So make a decision now."

Amaro gave a sigh and looked back at her. The brief conversation had seemed to tire him.

"I knew you were stubborn, I knew you were clever, and now I know you are absolutely mad. But seeing as you are going to do it anyway...I might as well help you."

A feeling of pure joy overcame the mortal girl. He was going to help her! Without even thinking, she reached out and wrapped her arms around his muscular body and hugged him. Then she stopped, realizing what a breach of etiquette this was. She blushed and immediately let go. She looked upon her guardian's face and saw the faintest flush of pink in his cheeks. A very awkward moment of silence passed between them. Dawn covered her mouth and looked up at him, and Amaro avoided eye contact with her by turning his head to the side.

"I'm sorry…I was just so happy...I didn't think." She bowed her head in repentance. "Forgive me."

At this the guardian seemed to regain his bearing. "It is all right." His voice was now back to its emotionless state. "Anyway, we need to discuss this plan of yours in further detail...before your play date with Alex."

They spent the remainder of her time discussing the rest of the plan. Finally, it was time to meet with Alex. Her stomach twisted in nervousness as she went out to the light patio where Alex was with his tops. He greeted her with a hug.

"Alex," she began gently, as she thought about how to word this, "I need to speak with your mother after we are done playing. It is very important and we need to speak alone."

A look of confusion took over Alex's face. While he was young, he knew the slave hierarchy well enough. As a consort candidate, Dawn was at the top, while he and his mother were at the bottom. Why would someone like that want to talk to his mother alone?

"It is very important grown-up girl stuff," she added on in hopes of him not asking too many questions.

The little boy was quiet for a few moments, which only added to Dawn's anxiety, but then he turned and nodded. A smile broke across the blonde's face.

"Thank you, Little Sir." She beamed at the little boy. "Now...let's play..."

After fun and games were over it was time for the serious work to begin. The candidate had asked the boy to take her down the most deserted path towards his mother. She didn't want any of the palace slaves to recognize her if she went undercover. Dawn was once again impressed by how well Alex seemed to know his way around the palace.

Finally, they made it to a small dusty room where Dorthy was on the ground, scrubbing. At the sound of their footsteps, she looked up and saw her son and Dawn. She looked in confusion at Dawn. But before the older woman could get a word in, her son ran up to her.

"Momma! Miss Dawn wants to speak to you alone...about grown-up girl stuff."

Dorthy made steady eye contact with the blonde as she slowly rose to her feet. The girl tried to read the older woman's face. She was apprehensive. It was no mystery why. Even though they were both slaves, Dawn was the higher ranking one and what did such a high ranking slave want with a palace one? Dorthy had enough common sense to know trouble when she saw it.

She looked over at her son. "Thank you. I will talk to Miss Dawn, alone."

With that the boy left, brushing past Dawn's skirt as he went. When she heard the door close, she looked up at Dorthy. Her mouth suddenly went dry. How was she going to convince her to help her? What did she have to offer?

"I have been issued...a challenge," she said simply as she began. "I want to go undercover as a palace slave and catch the thief who has been stealing." Much to Dawn's surprise and Dorthy's credit the older woman looked unfazed.

"I see..." she began. "First, what makes you think you can?"

At this Dawn began her reasoning. "Because whoever the thief is will not suspect an undercover person, particularly a human woman. I can go between the upper and lower worlds to collect evidence. And I have been trained for years as a people reader."

Dorthy looked at her for the longest time. Her expression was calculating and Dawn braced herself for the question she knew was coming next.

"But what do you have to gain from this?"

It finally came. Now how would she answer?

"I need to fulfill this challenge to make a dream of mine come true."

At that, the palace slave's eyes narrowed and she started to turn away. "If you think I'm going to help you become the consort, then just forget it!" Anger was clear in her voice, "And trust me, hon, it is not as wonderful as you think."

Dawn began to frantically shake her head. "No, wait! It is not that. Consort of the Vampire King is the last thing I want to be. I am doing this to avoid that fate!"

At this Dorthy looked back, now giving Dawn a second chance, but there was still clear skepticism in her eyes.

"Then what do you want—and don't dare try to lie to me." She crossed her arms.

The blonde sighed, seeing no choice. "I want to be invited by the king to the ball...so I can escape and find other free humans." Now Dawn waited for it. Dorthy was probably going to say she was crazy and there were no free humans.

But what happened next would shock even Dawn.

"I will help you."

Dawn's heart leaped forward.

"But on one condition."

Dawn's heart stopped again.

"And what is that?" she asked hesitantly.

"You will take my son with you."