Vampire Nightlife

Stacy flinched at those words and she fell silent.

"Is that so?" she asked.

"Yes, lift your head up and correct your posture." Drusilla said. "That is no way how a Vardoken should treat herself. Your ancestors had far more spirit than you."

"I see… my apologies for lacking the necessary attitude for it."

Her response was painful enough that even Lukas didn\'t know what to say.

He thought it was an honor to be acknowledged by an ancient Vampire–and yet for someone like Stacy, it was probably like a punch to the gut. If he could have elbowed Drusilla now to make her stop, he would have.

"Well, I think that\'s enough conversation in one night." Lukas said. "Go away, Drusilla."

"I haven\'t even lectured you for your insolence–"

"And there we go."

It was hard at first, but if Lukas concentrated and put his mind to it–the dagger vanished all at once to the amazement and concern on Stacy\'s face.

"Are you sure that it\'s alright?" she asked. "She sounded really upset."

"Yeah. I\'ll handle it." Lukas waved offhandedly. It was hard to see Stacy this way, unsure and unconfident about herself that he\'d rather cut the conversation abruptly than let the look of discomfort linger.

"I see, thank you." Stacy said as she plopped down back onto the grass. "My apologies for discovering–"

"I\'m worried about Chaerin." Lukas decided to say.

"Oh." Stacy blinked and looked at him carefully. "Is it because she insisted on coming with you? If I were in her shoes, I would also find it difficult to just be left behind and only wonder and worry about someone I care about."

"Is that why your brother tagged along too?"

"Yeah, that\'s it." Stacy nodded.

"But yeah," Lukas folded his hands together. "You\'ve noticed how Chaerin seems to be extremely weak to the sunlight. Far more than anyone else in the group… I just wish that there was something I could do for her."

The truth of the matter was that Lukas was already planning on letting Chaerin drink more of his blood. There was a secret to his nature and he had a feeling that it had to do with the fact that the Vampire Nightlife edition he bought was special.

However, for someone like Stacy–the easiest way to probably make her perk up after the talk with Drusilla was to feel useful and competent.

And as Lukas expected, she did exactly that.

"Don\'t get your hopes up, but I gathered something from the desert." Stacy admitted.

"Huh? What is it? Did you collect scorpion stingers or something?"

"When I was reunited with Alexei and before we found Theodore, we encountered one of those attacking cacti."

"Oh, you mean the ones that shoot out their needles? Nasty." Lukas said.

"Yeah, Alexei almost got hit by all of it." Stacy said, not quite smiling but not displeased either. "But there\'s something fascinating at the top of each green cacti. It\'s shaped like a pear and it\'s pink. I think it\'s called Opuntia."

"Opuntia?" Lukas raised a brow. "Do you think it can help Chaerin?"

"I\'m not so sure. It\'s only one item and that\'s not enough to really create a concoction that could help alleviate sun damage. But I also brought some other herbs–"

"Herbs?"

Stacy\'s cheeks flushed pink slightly. "I… I keep some plants."

"You can grow some plants?" Lukas was surprised to notice her blush. He thought it was impossible to grow anything underneath the eternal darkness of Lux City, but then he realized that there actually had been some trees and whatnot.

"Yes, you can grow some plants with little to no sunlight." Stacy shot him a look as if he was stupid.

Lukas chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "My bad, my bad. Not the smartest Vampire in the world, this one."

"Not the most dumb one either, I hope." Stacy retorted.

The two stared at each other before the two of them burst out into laughter. Or rather, Lukas chuckled loudly and Stacy stifled hers. It had been a long time since the two actually got a chance to sit down and just be with each other.

In between the \'morning-afternoon\' work hours that Lukas had with Lily and his \'nights\' spent with Chaerin after work–it was almost hard to imagine that Lukas actually even had enough time to meet Stacy.

Lukas could have easily gotten a month\'s supply of VitaBlood\'s Blood Water and skipped meeting Stacy all together to save time, but he didn\'t.

Instead, during the morning before work, sometimes during \'lunch\' and after work right before he went home–he\'d opt to get some Blood Water and have a quick chat with Stacy just to see how she was doing.

It was nothing special.

Hardly special for the two of them, really.

Just a little routine that lifted the spirits of one another–though neither would admit that out loud, much less to each other.

"But yeah, it\'s been awhile since I\'ve practiced creating potions and stuff, though I can maybe try making a topical cream for Chaerin." Stacy offered. "I believe the Hunters\' Association used to have my family and such create something like it, but then they\'d stop it all together because they were afraid of poison."

"... Now that\'s stupid." Lukas muttered. "I should let Emerys know that her grandfather is running up against me for the world\'s stupidest Vampire spot."

Stacy looked at him in disbelief and he just gave her a crooked grin.

This was great in Lukas\' eyes, Stacy was feeling all better and that made him feel good too. He wanted to say something else, but the silence wasn\'t all that bad either as he cast about their surroundings.

"Bunny?" Stacy suddenly said.

"Huh?" Lukas raised a brow and then glanced towards his right. In between the grasslands, there was a small black rabbit that popped out of nowhere and it had red eyes as well.

It looked kind of cute.