Irina laughed. "Do you think that I'd kill her? Or you? You think that I am stupid?"

"You said…"

"I said that I did not want to have questions. And do you know a better way to get questions started than a corpse or a disappearance? When I can just make you forget all about me? You have seen too many movies."

"But you are…:

"A vampire and a fae… which does not make me stupid… Now, look into my eyes Frank Carruthers… Look into my eyes and forget all about me. Then you and your girlfriend can settle your problems by yourselves"

-0-

"If he forgot, how come he told you about it?"

"He remembered when she lost her power over him… I mean you know that she did not get her way in the end."

"And you two continued arguing about what he was hiding?"

"Eventually it died down as he returned to normal. I mean I suspected but had nothing to go on."

"And what did Irina do?"

"She went after Louis. Yes, it was Louis who got her inside the mansion… at least that the show got right. But no need to marry him and no wig and no green dress….She just bit him and let him bring her in.

-0-

"At last, I am here… I was no good enough to come in – or allowed only through the servant's entrance. But now… now I can be the mistress. I can rule them all. "

"What do you want?"

"I want a nice safe place to stay where no one knows that I am here. I want to make my plans to get even with Amos Benchley… I want…"

Her eyes fell on the paints and brushes that were still found in Louis' room.

"Do you paint?"

"Yes."

"Do you paint portraits?"

"Yes. Not as good as Pruitt. But I can do it."

"Paint my portrait! I want to know what my face looks like!"

As he sets himself with his paints Irina looks around.

"So, this is the famed Benchley Mansion. Nothing to be so damn proud of. Yes, it is not a log cabin, but is no grand palace either. I have seen so many better places. And it is run down.

"Tell me, Louis Benchley, why does it look so... so worn?"

"The family lost quite an amount of money when ships began to be built with steel instead of wood. The Benchley Shipyards depended on the woods growing around the place, but steel was not so cheap and we could not make our own… Then there were some bad business decisions….and the family was too stubborn to make different lives for themselves. They clung to this place and to the town they ruled while going to the Big City would have made them join the rest of mortals. A big stepdown for them. I tried to tell Leonore to stop hanging on a lifestyle we could no longer afford. I even tried that for a while…and I failed and had to come back and live off my sister's charity…We are no longer what we once were."

"But Amos is the same."

"Who knows about Amos? He is now rebuilding that old manor and says he wants to make it a bed and breakfast or an inn. I do hope he pulls it off."

"There are things about Amos you do not know."

Louis shrugged. "There are things about everybody that I do not know. I did not know until recently that my sister thought that she had killed her husband and buried him in the basement… so yes, there are things that I do not know about Amos. And one day I will be very surprised."

Irina said nothing to this, just holding her pose, as her mind began to work.

People did not know about Amos being a vampire… That is until he fed off you. Then you knew but could say nothing. He could choose to make them forget as she did but instead gathered them into some sort of family around him.

What if they began to fear him? To think that they could not longer trust that he would not hurt them? What if she turned his "family" against him?

"Enough" she told Louis. "We will continue tomorrow."

He nodded. The tone she used did not allow for arguments. "See you tomorrow then"

She turned herself into a bat and flew away. She had a plan and she needed an instrument.

"Owen Raft" she summoned him "I need you."

Raft met her at the border of the town "I did what you wanted. You promised to release me."

"I lied" she said and bit him.

She drank without stopping. Much more than she usually drank. She glutted herself and allowed the blood to run from her mouth down her chin and on the ground. She drank until his heart stopped.

"Owen Raft, when you wake up you will help me bring Amos down"