Devils Dance [Keiri]

It seemed so much had happened since they had taken over the pack from their fallen father. There was no denying the facts either. The pack was thriving and alive, they had strengthened their reputation, they got three new members, the newest being Yurik. She had found a new companion, one she trusted but couldn’t afford to. And so many other things had happened. These things made the nights turn out larger than normal and far more sophisticated. It was not something either twin was overly thrilled about but they would act with grace and composure, as they assured each other they would that morning.

The day was torturous for her. Ambriel was forced to see to finishing details before she was sent for a three hour nap. After that she ate a light lunch and was subjected to her handmaids wills. Bridget had called in the two maids she never really let around her and set them to work. After a bath and having her hair dried and brushed for hours at end, or so it seemed she was dressed in her under dress before sat once more before her vanity on the small stool and closed her eyes letting one see to her hair, while another carefully managed her hands and nails. Bridget was dealing with her dress and shoes carefully. After an hour and a half her hair was done and her makeup was next. It took about ten minutes to carefully apply charcoal to her eyelids just to frame her eyes and darken her long lashes, a faint darkening of them gave her golden eyes a brighter hue with the smoky grayish black that the carefully blurred charcoal created. Her cheeks were just faintly powered pink, giving her softly golden skin a natural hue. Then her full lips were painted a shade pinker than their natural color, to just accent them. A quick setting of a necklace was done before she was finally dressed in her dress and then her feet slipped into the black one inch heels and she was off.

The ball was at its first stages, the massive grand hall elegantly decorated. People already mingled human, and werewolf. Trace was across the room talking to a group of men looking fine in forest green and grey. Mena was present in a corner with a few other history lovers, looking nice in her dusky olive gold and cream dress, accenting her darker skin perfectly. Diane was flaunting a powder blue dress. The women seemed to favor softer colors, a few wore darker colors but her dress was by far the most striking she realized, she would be noticed no matter what. Her long gown had straps off her slender shoulders, hugged her torso neatly and gently flared out around her in a brilliant red maroon. Her raven locks were in an elegant and delicate looking twist with miniature red roses accenting each dip of locks. Leaving her the most elegant Lady present as well and the simplest dressed.

Golden eyes scanned the room from behind the door crack before she turned away and sighed. Soon the announcement for the hostess would come, everyone important was introduced when they entered the room and walked down the gently curved stairs to the grand hall. Just moments ago Reagan and Diane went the herald calling to the room ‘Lady Diane of Golden Lake and Sir Reagan Theolyn’. People had paused to look up as they descended and Trace greeted Diane and things went back to normal. She was to be the last one who would be introduced, as Trace had been the first.

The herald looked at her and gave her a kind smile. She returned it with a nervous one. Taking a calming breath she straightened and stepped forward and her pushed the doors open and stepped forth. “Lady of the Manor, Countess Ambriel of Kane”, he called forth making everyone fall silent. Lifting her chin slightly she stepped into sight and moved with steady grace to the first step and gracefully lifted her hand to barely touch the gold railing and ‘glided’ rather than walked down the steps to the floor below. Eyes were locked on her it bothered her, but Ambriel ignored her nerves and focused on staying calm. Once she reached the bottom she lifted both arms as thought o embrace the room. A warm smile was given. “Welcome all to the Solstice Ball, the night is young, so please enjoy your-selves”, her voice carried and she lowered her arms. The normal applause was given and things went back to activity.

That terrible task over Ambriel moved away from the stairs and plucked a glass from the nearest servers tray and down the wine before setting it back a sheepish grin at the waiters knowing wink. Turning away she smiled and touched her brothers cheek when she found him there. “Happy birthday brother”, she said fondly. The green eyed male kissed her hand gently and squeezed it with a smile of his own. “And to you dearest sister. You look wondrous this night”, he complimented. She smiled brighter. “And you look marvelous”, she returned. He let her go and left after one more smile. Feeling a little better she moved through people looking for someone to converse with to ease the tense knot in her stomach. The music was playing and dancing was going on already, some people were by the back tables snacking or drinking, clumps of people were talking, joking, laughing. The great Terrance glass doors were open to the massive Terrance, letting a gentle cool breeze in the room and let the clear starry night show with the great full moon in the sky.

This night was to be the perfect night, or so she felt. However with that good she felt something bad would also would happen. Until it happened though she wouldn’t worry about it. There was nothing she could do anyway.

The past few months had to have been the most chaotic and entertaining he would ever have. He had negotiated the take over of a company, bribed various people to create an entirely new identity for himself, and finally joined the largest and most powerful werewolf pack whose past was stained with the blood. Then once he joined the pack he was forced to survive away from all of his contacts and allies, all the private wars he had cultivated against his ‘minor’ enemies were either crushed or delayed as his opportunity to achieve his ultimate goal arose before him. Now he was as alone as he could be in the middle of a pack that would very well tear him to shreds if they learned of who he truly was and his ambitions, even those he had come to enjoy being with would turn against him and several such as their second in command would suddenly find their dreams come true that someone they hated was suddenly open game once out of Ambriel’s favor.

Yurik let himself smile at the thought of how his plans after all these years have finally began to come to fruition, he had only been in the clan for a month and yet he was already beginning to get close to some of the most powerful and influential people in it; he had befriended the Alpha female, Weapons master, became acquainted with the records keeper and his grand daughter as well as several others. The only foreseeable downside of all of this was what he was currently doing now, standing completely still as sadistic, demonic seamstress began to put the finishing touches on his clothes as she continued to talk on and on and on until he thought his entire head would explode from the head ache pounding on it mercilessly. His first time meeting her he thought it was bad enough but once something important came up it was impossible to ignore her voice since ever few seconds a pin would jab into him as she did god knows what to make sure that his clothing fitted properly.

His teal blue eyes looked to the side into the mirror and was once again surprised by how he had changed since he was first dragged into the court yard nearly a month ago, even though he was wearing his re-tailored jacket from then it was odd to see how his soldiers and grown broader and his body picked up more muscle from the intense training and hard labor he went through almost daily. He was no longer the slender aristocratic young man that had first come here, he had grown out of his more elegant clothing that he had first brought with him as he hardened into someone that could be better relied on in battle. He was by far no equal to the trained soldiers such as Micah but at least now he wouldn’t have to rely completely on his intelligence if something happened When the needles finally stopped jabbing him he glanced behind his soldier as the woman man handled him until he was facing the mirror while she admired her work on his apparel . He couldn’t completely hide his irritation for the woman when he asked if they were done but just as he had ignored her she too was ignoring him as she packed up while never seeming to be out of breath as she kept talking of how much fun it was to work with her hands on clothes for such important balls and kept it up even as she left the room closing the door behind her.

An amused laugh brought his attention back to the last person left standing in the room besides himself, a woman nearly as tall as himself stood near a window as she gazed over at him with amber eyes sparkling in amusement and a decorated fan covering her mouth that was twisted in a smile to match her eyes. Lorenza Vernazza was dressed as exotically as always, her seemingly glowing dark skin and amber eyes were nearly always enough to catch a man’s attention even without the added graceful curves to her body that many women would envy. Her dark hair was tied back in a loose single ponytail up high with a violet orchid placed at the base, held in place by two decorative chop-sticks like pins. “My my, you poor child you. As soon as you get out of the clutches of one woman you immediately find yourself in another one's, tell me how much freedom have you enjoyed this time hm? One, two months at most?” She said as she slowly walked towards him, graciously fanning herself while only letting her eyes peer over the rim at him. The comment brought out a low grunt as he straightened his jacket out more and rolled his shoulders to get more comfortable in the clothing. “Roughly a month and a half since I left your manor, then the second day here I was brought to that woman for new clothes and haven’t been able to escape yet.”

When he looked over at her he could see the merriment in her eyes glow brighter as she show the grimace on his face, one thing that would never change about her was the way she rather enjoyed seeing people sweat and toying with them. Which is precisely why he had tried to get her to come, she had taken him in several years ago and had continuously played games with him for both her own amusement and to raise someone who she could use later on but most importantly she held numerous ways to gain information and pull strings on various people so she might be able to learn something of value for him here while she took the chance to greatly increase her business. “Tsk tsk, I would have thought you had outgrown your racism against seamstresses from the countless hours I had you being fitted. But as that lovely lady was telling you we really should get going, the ball has already started up and I wouldn’t forgive either of us if I missed the chance to make new clients.” She said before striding off towards the door intent on joining the ball as she left him behind looking at her with a frown before walking after her rising his voice as he closed the door behind him. “That’s exactly what gave it to me in the first place!”

The party was every bit as promising as every told him it would be, humans and werewolves conversed with ease in either small groups or people or in pairs as the sound of laughter, voices, and music filled the elegant hall with a feeling of warmth. Yurik had just come into the ball from one of the doors at the bottom in time to see Ambriel hold her arms out in greeting to her guests before everyone flowed back into what they were doing. With a small smile he immediately set out towards her but had only gone a few feet before he was suddenly surrounded by people all speaking to him, all revolving around his status in the clan and his plans for marriage. With the best smile he could master he calmly tried to answer their questions while subtly taking steps away in an attempt to get away, his eyes rose to meet Amber ones filled with mischievous as Lorenza looked over at him with the fan covering her mouth while pointing in his direction; sending another young lady walking over in his direction in addition to the small trap she had previously set up and he foolishly fell for.

While Yurik was desperately trying to escape from the sudden group of people trying to get him to consider their daughters for marriage or at least taking an interest in them Lorenza expertly navigated the room as she closed in on her current target, Yurik would find a way to escape soon so she had to be sure to set up an obstacle to prevent him from retaliating. With her fan still covering her mouth as she lightly fanned herself she stepped out into the path of the Alpha female that Yurik tended to speak of. With a small bow that slightly bended her back she presented herself to her as she began to speak. “Countess Ambriel, it is a pleasure to finally meet you face to face. I am Lorenza Vernazza, the merchant that Yurik referred to your people who has come to graciously thank you for using our services this evening. If there is anything you require of me please dont hesitate to ask." Her amber eyes glance around the room quickly as she kept track of Yurik, who had now managed to hide his face behind a platter full of wine glasses; a rather simple yet effective move. She wouldn’t have to stall the Alpha for to long before she could make herself and excuse about seeing to the preparation of some of her best wine for the dinning table.

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I, Lelouch Vi Brittannia, commands you to post.

A few people stepped before her and greeted her, or complimented her as she walked without a course. She smiled politely and inclined her head, shook hands, and repeated thanks numerous times. It was dull tiresome work, but it was her task as Hostess. It was something she was quickly getting the stride of. It didn’t bother her by the fifth person who stopped her. And the two young men who asked for dances she simply said she would dance later, for now she had things to do, an easy brush off. There was only one person she wanted to share her first dance with, as well as her last one. And he was nowhere in sight.

Golden eyes flickered to scan the crowd when someone stepped into her path making her stop quickly and blink to look at this intruder of her path. But she quickly placed a warm smile in place and gave a small incline of her head in greetings. “Mistress Vernazza, the pleasure is mutual, I have heard your name mentioned a few times from Yurik. I am pleased with the wine, he was right about your product. I will keep you in mind next event”, she said politely. Movement with a tray caught her attention and she glanced in the direction and stifled the urge to giggle by touching her fingers to her lips. “Oh that man”, she muttered to her-self. She was fully amused. So she would save him because he was clearly hiding. “Yurik, about time, are you always going to be late for public functions”, she lightly teased the other. She shook her head. A server came around and took the tray the moment she lifted from Yurik’s hands and went off with it. “You are hopeless”, she playfully scolded him.

Then she remembered the woman she was speaking with, having been completely distracted b y Yurik. Something she knew she needed to work on. It could give people the wrong impression about them and leave nothing but trouble in the wake of their playful bantering relationship as friends.

Yurik stalked throughout the room with a server’s tray held up to block his face as his eyes searched for the person who threw him into this mess, it shouldn’t be to hard to spot a colored woman dressed like her so why couldn’t he seem to find her anywhere. Then his teal eyes spotted her, the tray covering up who ever she was speaking with but he was determined not to let her slip away again. Just as he was approach his body suddenly tensed and froze for a moment as he recognized Ambriel’s voice calling out to him. Then his cover was suddenly taken away from him and he blinked in surprise as he stared at her with a slightly open jaw before speaking out in disbelief. “Its not my fault, She was the one tha-“ His head turned to face the other woman before he stopped in midsentence, nobody was there and Vernazza was no where in sight. Turning around to look for her his eyes swept out behind Ambriel while the person he was searching for walked away, her head looking over her shoulder as she gave Ambriel a small wink and an identical playful smile that Yurik always wore. Then the crowd closed around her once again hiding her from yurik’s sight before he looked back and sighed.

Turning back to Ambriel Yurik allowed himself to eye her up and down for a moment before stepping back and smiling at her, his hand extended as he bowed down to her. “You look lovely as always my lady, would you do me the honor of being your first dance this evening; it may not be as unique as our last one but fun none the less.” He said playfully as he waited for her to take his hand, his old caretaker pushed out of his mind as he decided to enjoy himself tonight while he can. And that of course meant spending time and teasing the woman before him little by little while he waited calmly for the gift giving where he would surprise them all with what he was able to provide.

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I, Lelouch Vi Brittannia, commands you, all of you, to acknowledge me.