V

The next morning, Ellis woke up happily when she remembered that it was a Saturday. In fact, everything seemed much brighter and happier during the weekends. The sun shined brighter, the people kinder, and it was just great.

Ellis hummed as she slipped into a simple white sundress with spaghetti straps. The delicate lace tickled her knees as she whirled through the room, picking up her dirty clothes and heading to the kitchen. Her hands flew as she ground some coffee, drained it, and added a bit of blood. Everything was so beautiful and…

Ellis walked out of the kitchen and into the living room.

There was that little mood-damper, hauling himself into a sitting position so slowly and painfully Ellis couldn't even bear to look at him. With a groan, Dreyon finally propped himself upright, grasping the coffee table for support.

Needless to say, he looked terrible. His skin was sickly, and there were dark shadows under his eyes. His hands trembled as he exhaled a long, rattling breath. He looked like a vampire who hadn't eaten for a few thousand years.

"Don't puke on my carpet. I spent forever getting the bloodstains from your little gift days ago. There's a pail beside you, so if you need to get the poison out of your system, do it there." Ellis said flatly.

"I don't need to puke," Dreyon growled.

"Great," Ellis said. She took a sip of her coffee.

And yes. Despite everything, Ellis did feel a teeny bit of guilty satisfaction as she watched Dreyon haul himself into a standing position and take a step, only to nearly fall flat on his face again.

Ellis turned back to the kitchen and poured a bag of blood into a glass.

"Here," Ellis offered, giving him the blood.

"I don't drink bagged blood," Dreyon said stiffly.

"Really?" Ellis laughed. "After yesterday, I thought you'd want to stay away from fresh blood, not blood bags."

"I don't want it, I don't need it," Dreyon snarled.

"Oh, all right, then." Ellis said, setting her coffee down and putting her hands on her hips. "So you want to come home drunk again, force me to take care of you like a freaking baby, and spend your night babbling about Alice…"

Dreyon moved faster than Ellis could have ever expected. One moment, Dreyon was looking pale and sickly, barely managing to stand, and in the next moment, Ellis found herself pressed against the wall and a very tight hand around her throat.

"What did I say?" Dreyon growled.

"Look, you were drunk, and…" Ellis wheezed out, but the fist tightened.

"What did I say?" Dreyon roared.

"You just said something sounded nice, that's all!" Ellis grunted.

Dreyon's hands vanished from her throat. Shakily, Ellis got to her feet, rubbing her neck. Dreyon was now pacing around the living room like a captured animal, wild and angry. Yes, he still looked pretty bad, but there was something furious in his eyes that would make any challenger step away as fast as they could.

"Who's Alice anyway?" Ellis grumbled.

"None of your business," Dreyon snapped.

"Look, at least you could repay me for last night by telling me at least her last name…"

"Goodbye, Ellis."

With that, Dreyon stormed out of the room, leaving Ellis standing there, stunned.

"Not even a thank you?" Ellis said. She sighed. What a rude, rude boy.

Usually, Ellis would just shrug and find Serena, maybe shop a bit, but this time, she was genuinely curious. Who was this Alice? How did she make Dreyon seem almost… caring?

Of course, finding out who this Alice is might also give her some very good blackmail information. It's about time that little brat had a taste of his own medicine.

Ellis grabbed her coffee and made her way back to her room, starting her computer. The Internet was definitely one of the better inventions through the centuries. If Ellis wanted to find information about Alice, the Internet was a promising start.

Once the webpage was ready, Ellis opened a search engine and typed in 'Alice'. But before she hit enter, she remembered that there were probably millions of Alices throughout the centuries. She had to narrow the topic down a little, so she retyped it into 'Alice and Dreyon'.

Then, she hit enter.

Again, there were millions of results, and she wasn't going to waste her Saturday tracking down every single one of them. Ellis thought about narrowing the topic a bit more, but in the end… there really wasn't going to be anything good. She simply knew too little. She could add 'Nightwalker', but as Dreyon had very kindly mentioned, the vampires would wipe every trace of their existence from the Internet, so that would get her nowhere.

Scowling, Ellis flipped through a few articles. Nothing popped up to her. She had no results whatsoever.

She thought for a quick moment. What if she searched for images instead?

The images weren't as helpful as she had imagined. There were at least a few hundred Alice in Wonderland pictures, and even more pictures of random Alices from all over the world.

Ellis was on the thirty-fourth page when she saw something that stopped her. She clicked on the image, and waited for it to enlarge.

It was an old photograph, black and white, and faded with age. But there was no way the person standing there is not the one and only Dreyon Morgen.

There, Dreyon looked almost… happy. Ellis was briefly stunned. Instead of his usual sarcastic drawls, there was a genuine smile of happiness on his face. He looked so carefree… Ellis had no idea how he turned into the sarcastic creature he is.

But no, wait… there was a girl standing beside him, her arm looped through his. The girl wore a light green gown that accented her perfect figure. Her shimmery golden hair was pinned up in elaborate curls, and a delicate little hat was perched on her head. She was laughing, her face flushed, and… Ellis sat back with a jolt. The girl, Alice, looked exactly like her.

Ellis squinted again. She grabbed a small pocket mirror and glanced at her own reflection. Then, she glanced at Alice's picture. They were exactly the same. Maybe Alice's eyes were a teeny bit bigger, but that could have easily been a difference of perspective or anything, really.

Ellis exhaled. So was that why Dreyon was always acting so strangely around her? Was it because she looked exactly like his past girlfriend or something? For a moment, Ellis thought that she might be a reincarnation of this Alice or something, but then… She was born in the 1600s, where the camera was barely created. So no, she couldn't be Alice's reincarnation. But then could Alice be her reincarnation? But that wouldn't make sense, since she's still alive… technically…

Ellis moaned. This was getting her nowhere.

Gritting her teeth, she printed the picture out. Dreyon would have some serious answering to do.