While the city was beautiful at daytime, nothing compared to it at night. It looked proud and majestic, its ancient buildings still standing tall and proud, and as she walked along the ancient stone walls with the lightness of a feather, she stared around the city she'd called home for the past four months with a ghost of a smile.
Light footsteps sounded behind her, reminding her that she wasn't alone, and she glanced behind her. "Why did Master make us patrol together?" She asked softly, knowing he'd hear he regardless of how quietly she spoke. The male behind her gave a heavy sigh, still following behind her. "Because, and we shouldn't question his orders either."
Her eyes flickered to him as she came to a standstill. "I wasn't questioning his orders, merely wondering why out of everyone, we were placed together? Don't you typically patrol with your sister? I'm normally with Santiago, not you." She pointed out, the vampire with the dreadlocks having been her patrolling partner since three months ago, and someone who constantly cheered her up too. He was like a court jester; someone who was always up for a good laugh, somewhat like Felix, making it no wonder they got on so well, the same as the giant and Demetri did, the pair currently on guard duty with the masters in their library.
Alec gave a lazy roll of his shoulders. "Jane has some other matters to attend to." He drawled with a slight smirk and she raised a brow, a ghost of a smile on her face. "That code for torturing someone?" She joked and he flashed a wide smirk at her. "Perhaps. Maybe I should direct her towards you for coming up short on your promise to do better in training sessions. You haven't been trying well in ours."
Olivia scowled. "Yes, because being berated about not concentrating enough does wonders for the actual aspect of concentration itself, especially when your tutor is making your life miserable during said training sessions." She quipped and he furrowed his brows. "You weren't putting all your effort into it, so I merely pointed that out to you. Not my fault if you took offence to it.
Her eyes widened as she rounded on him, scoffing. "You know something, I'm new to this, okay? I didn't have training sessions seven days a week, eighteen hours a day when I was in Geoffrey's coven. I had maybe one, perhaps three gruelling sessions a week, but not every single day. I have my training with you during the only free time I'm allowed, and its directly after training with the others. I apologise if, after being beaten into the floor and having an arm reattached, I'm more than a little exhausted, both mentally and emotionally, and I just don't have time to entertain your childish jabs towards me." She hissed.
Despite being turned at roughly the same age, he was still taller, and he suddenly rose to full height, venom filled eyes glaring at me. "Well try!" He spat. "Master spared you because he saw potential, and you've squandered it. My sister and I came from horrific circumstances and we were pushed into training that was even harder than yours, twenty-four hours a day, so were most of the people here. Master has been lenient with you because I'm meant to be teaching you how to harness your gift into maximising it to its full potential, and yet you lack the conviction to want it!"
Olivia recoiled slightly. "He spared me because he saw power," she hissed back before she could correct herself and he smirked. "Potential is power, and power keeps the rest of our kind in line, Olivia. Perhaps I will send Jane your way, maybe she can teach you to curb your disrespectful attitude. What you've felt is a mere fraction of the pain she can inflict. Centuries ago, Master had her use her gift at full charge on a human," he sneered the word, although the sadistic glint in his eyes said otherwise. "He didn't last long. Maybe you should remember that when you don't put your best effort into something." He added in a hiss.
Her own eyes flickered down before back to him. "Well I am trying, but its hard," she murmured and he scoffed. "Olivia, you annihilated an entire coven and didn't collapse like when you did so to a Romanian force!" He exclaimed, angry now. "You have potential, and yet you squander it. If you stopped being so unsure of yourself, you would have no bother reaching that potential." He added.
She shook her head. "I don't doubt myself." She whispered and he rolled his eyes, the ruby red irises disappearing for a second before the refocused on her with an intensity like she'd never seen before. "No? When you train with Felix and Demetri, you hesitate to attack back. Why? I have a good idea why." He mocked, walking forward until he was less than a foot away from her. She swallowed. "You don't want to turn out like your father," he whispered, red eyes mocking her.
A scowl ripped across her face and she gave him a colossal shove backwards, the male vampire moving back several feet before he stopped himself. "I am nothing like my father!" She spat murderously, red eyes darkening as anger swept through her, more potent that she'd ever felt before in all her decades. Her chest heaved with unnecessary breaths as she struggled to contain her sudden rage. "I have never done half of the stuff he did to me to another person."
Alec righted himself, nostrils flaring as his anger increased tenfold. He was about to speak, a light in a neighbouring house coming on stopping him, and he grabbed her, moving her down into one of the severely darkened alleys below. Her back met the old brick wall harshly as he shoved her. "I never said you had," he spat at her, her own jaw clenched. "But you won't gain anything by holding onto his stupid existence." He hissed.
Olivia scoffed. "I don't think about him anymore, not since I reached my first decade in this life. The only times I've brought him up is when someone has asked about my past, like Master did, and you," she snarled back, eyes wide and angry. "I don't like to waste my time on such a waste of space, so then again, why am I talking to you?" She quipped snidely, a crack appearing on her back as he shoved her back, his face mere inches from hers. "Because I'm your superior in the guard, that is why," he replied harshly, and she opened her eyes, maintaining his glare as she crossed her arms across her chest, swiftly removing his from her chest roughly. He was moved back by the forceful action. She rolled her eyes. "The only ones I answer to are the Masters, not you. I answer to them, not you, unless told otherwise, and right now, I haven't been told otherwise." She commented coldly.
His burgundy coloured eyes watched her narrowly. "Then I suggest you keep quiet-" he suddenly stopped himself, eyes darting around them before he inhaled, head snapping to the right. She frowned, taking a step forward as he reacted to an invisible presence with a snarl. "What is it? There isn't anything the-" she then stopped herself as she heard the almost soundless footsteps heading towards them. He grabbed her and went to walk in the opposite direction, but then stopped.
"Great potential, eh?" A drawling, distinctly Russian, accent commented, and she spun around, eyes widening as she saw a cluster of another three individuals, red eyes gleaming maliciously. She tightened her hold on the arm that was gripping her other arm. "Alec," she whispered and he gave a distinct rumble, warning her to keep quiet.
The man who'd spoke chuckled, peering at her around Alec. "Relinquish your hold on her, boy," he taunted, taking a step forward, and then another one. Alec snarled, shoving her further behind him, and the man laughed. "You actually believe you can protect her? You aren't your sister, boy, and we have our own shield, rendering you practically ineffective against us all. Try it. I know you can sense it, and I know that you've realised just how outnumbered you are, and how we're about to take you both. My men have scanned the city and told me you're the only two out here tonight. Come quietly."
Another man laughed behind them. "Let the boy fight to save them both, Alexi. I always do like a woman who fights back too." He drawled, and it seemed to snap something in the others, for before she could comprehend what was happening, three others seized her and she went to throw them off, but something instantaneously drained her strength, and she could hear muffled grunts that told her Alec wasn't being so easily subdued, but before she could see what was happening, a loud cracking sound echoed through her mind and the whole world went dark.