Sometimes Rido watched her sleep.

Sometimes her father crept in while she was bundled up under her covers and stared. Eyes hungry and possessive - and the only reason she knew about it was because the man had a habit of waking her up just in time for her to catch sight of him drifting out the door.

She didn't think she would ever find out if it was intentional or not - her seeing him.

She didn't know if she wanted to.

The smell of the rain was almost suffocating.

Strong, heady, and earthen - it was nearly too much.

Nearly.

But all the same she had taken to breathing through her mouth when the storms came - at least for now.

At least until she got her senses under control and the storms stopped being her fault.

The push and pull of her emotions were...strong.

Powerful.

Empathy was dangerous in the hands of a godlike child.

She was so different now.

"When can I go out?"

"When you're ready."

"How will I know that?"

"When I tell you so."

She hated being confined.

Hated it.

She could play games too and no one did childish better than 'Atlas'.

Letting blue eyes stare dully down at the offered tray of confections, the reincarnation let her attention drift back to her stuffed animals. Small hands making the dolls dance back and forth despite not giving a shit about them but it wasn't the point to enjoy this.

Rido hated being ignored.

Especially by her, she was finding.

Good. She needed some leverage.

"I don't want that." She announce boredly, the tone of her voice imperious in the way only a child's could be and Akasha swallowed her smirk at his spike of discontent. "I want to play with my toys."

And so she did - fuck him.

Akasha made sure to be sleeping during his next few visits because she knew he hated her inattention of him.

It only served him right.

Staring down at the clutter of her room from the high perch of the window sill, Akasha hummed.

It had taken a lot of trial and error to get herself up here and she was lucky vampire bodies were made up differently than a human's, else several of the tumbles she had taken would have killed her.

Or at the very least broken some bones.

Near immortality was a strange strange thing.

She decided she wouldn't think about it - at least not yet.

Pushing herself up and out of her crouch, the young Pureblood launched herself clean off the edge.

Stomach halfway up her windpipe at the sensation of falling, she let out a loud whoop that was muffled by the cushion she landed face first in.

She loved her new body.

"What do you do when you're not here with me?" She asked one day, voice carefully filled with childish curiosity as she fiddled with the dolls and toys he gave her and Rido hummed.

"I do the things necessary." The tall immortal said as he leaned against the window pane. "So that you remain safe and sound."

Akasha wanted to claw his face off.

A window to her right buckled under the strain of the wind and she struggled to calm herself.

That wasn't an answer.

Were any these days?

He was trying to placate her, she realized as she stared up at the beautiful blonde haired lady standing in the drawing room.

An attendant, he said. A handmaiden to wait on her hand and foot. Someone to keep Akasha company when he had to be away.

He was trying to placate her and she would let it work - for now.

After all, Kimiko Satori was the key to learning more about the outside.

Whether she knew it or not.

She had a lizard-brain - animal instincts - and apparently the new Sayori were their enemy.

"Hime-sama?"

Akasha twitched, fingers curling.

Actually scratch that, it seemed the other vampire was caught between friend and foe.

Everything had been fine until she woke up the next day with only Sayori there and more importantly, Sayori's scent. It was permeating, rubbing off on the walls.

Vampires were very visceral creatures, Akasha was finding, they lived on their senses and those very same attributes were often harder to control than the former human had hoped.

Which meant Sayori, as a stranger, with her strange foreign scent was rubbing her the wrong way.

The girl wasn't able to function if the woman wasn't in her sights at all times. Every move the other made was viciously and relentlessly scrutinized for any hint of violence or aggression and more than once when the other got too close, Akasha had hissed - causing the elder vampire to beg in an apology that lasted well into an hour.

It was getting ridiculous

Staring hard at the other, the young pureblood forced her the grimace on her face into something more placid - not quite a smile but it was softer - and nodded.

Something needed to be done about this situation.

"Just - stand still." She finally answered from her perch on the tallest window's ledge, just shy of the ceiling. "I have to think."

"As you wish, Hime-sama."

Akasha paused, chewing on her tongue for a moment - considering.

"And don't speak until I say so."

A bow.

Nodding, Akasha gathered herself and lunged off the edge, stomach leaping into her throat as she barreled feet first into the sofa, hands slamming into leather a second after to steady herself. From her crouched position, the dark haired girl gave a quick sniff to the air trying to ignore way Sayori's stone like scent ate at the cloying sweetness of Rido and the floralness of her own self.

She shouldered past the discomfort of a foreign smell and instead breathed deeper, until she could taste the other woman on her tongue and Akasha let it set there for a long moment.. Let herself get familiar.

Stone - earth? Leaves.

Dry and crumbling.

Akasha sneezed, startling herself and with a furrowing of her brow she took another inhale.

ugh

Better, but not the best.

This would take some getting used to.

It was unnerving having another human -

no.

Another being -

exist in the same space as her and it was - othering. Crystal eyes never wavered from the new beautiful face currently standing at ease, awaiting orders.

And they had to be hers.

She never had a maid before, Rido took care of her like the little doll she was - that was, until now Akasha supposed.

"Where are you from?" She found herself asking and without missing a beat, head bent in deference, Sayori smiled.

"The manor, Hime-sama." Green eyes didn't lift to hers and Akasha twitched.

"The manor?" She said slowly, still eyeing the other. "As in what? This one?"

A nod.

"I was born and raised on these very grounds." The woman fell into a bow. "I am completely loyal to the Kurans, just as my mother was before me."

A legacy.

But maybe not one to be proud of.

"Was she born here too then?"

"Of course, Hime-sama," Sayori smiled, soft and sweet. "my entire bloodline was."

She frowned.

"After all, we have to insure that we produce only the best retainers." Sayori said and Akasha felt a little sick. "The Kimiko strive to be of use, to our Pureblood sovereign, always."

Disgusting.

She paused.

But useful.

"I beg your pardon Hime-sama?" Kimiko Satori said, wide pale eyes flashing to her and then meekly away towards the floor and Akasha cocked her head to the side.

"Call me Akasha." She repeated resisting the urge to say it slower, as if she were talking to an idiot but she knew it was just the frustration brewing in her veins. She hated when things didn't go her way. "Or even just Akasha-sama - it's just that I would prefer you to actually say my name."

It was easier to know that this was real that way.

"I don't hear it often." She smiled and it was then Satori fell into a bow - but no, it couldn't with her head pressed against the floor.

This was prostration

Seiza.

"Your humble servant apologizes, Hime-sama," Came the quivering response of the girl, only the pale of her hair visible from where she lay prostrated on her knees. "but I cannot."

Akasha stared.

"You are a divine being! To speak to Hime-sama with that kind of familiarity is unthinkable." Satori continued. "I am truly sorry but, I cannot."

"...Fine."

Annoying.

A pause.

"Get up and get out."

The windows shattered.

So fucking annoying.

"I want to be alone."

…

"As you wish, Hime-sama."

How does it feel to be royalty? She asked herself, staring into the mirror at long dark hair and ice chip eyes. How does it feel to be better than everyone else?

Her powder gaze slide left and down, towards the still shadow Akasha could see standing guard just outside her doors and the glass cracked.

"Annoying."

She couldn't work with this, blind worship was only useful when someone could manipulate it.

She swallowed against the lump in her throat.

She'd figure something out - she always did.

Tick tock, time's a-wastin.

"Sayori told me she lives here in our manor - is that true Chichi-eu?" Akasha asked, icing from the cake her father brought smeared endearingly across her cheek, eyes blown just the right amount of wide. "Was she really born here like I was? Her whole family too?"

Said woman wasn't present anymore, having made her escape - or perhaps having been sent away - earlier, hours before the Lord of the house even showed his face or crossed the threshold.

Jealousy. She could feel it pitching and turning, practically radiating off the other and Akasha was annoyed - why get her the woman if he was just going to get mad about her being around.

How petty.

Blinking up at the man, she patiently awaited his answer, head cocked to the side, curls bouncing.

The man's dual colored gaze turned to rest on her instead of the apple he finally finished skinning - to fed her with, since he didn't eat food - and he chuckled.

It was rich and deep.

"Your maid is one of many born and bred in these very halls to serve our whims, my darling." He drawled darkly, knife never stopping even without his direct attention. "Do not lower yourself with such a comparison again, she is beneath you."

There was a beat, dark and heavy before she cut through it with a smile.

Practiced and precise - carefree.

Beautiful.

"Then where was I born?" She asked, wheedling for more, just a little drunk off of first bit of new knowledge - of new confirmation she had ever received from this man.

An emotion bubbled - delight? No - satisfaction - from inside the man across from here and Akasha stared.

Rido smirked and it felt - off.

Malicious.

"Why, in the halls of my ancestral home of course." Everything shivered and sharpened, that lizard brained part of herself pulling to attention at the threat lingering in the air. "Where else?"

Where the fuck even was that?

She glared, staring out into the storm outside and let her anger cause thunder and lightning.

"Are you alright, Akasha-hime?" Came the inquiry and the girl twitched, the sky rumbling with the force of the young girl's frustration and she forced herself to make a single exhalation.

"Yes." She gritted out, glass bulging under the weight of her scorn. "Now please, I need silence."

She was gonna snap one of these days.

It was only a question of who on.

Sayori, Rido, or herself.

Here's a new chapter!😭😭more insight into vampire life lol. Akasha's feeling things out and Rido's weird and controlling, what's new. This format will change once we get to the chapter where Akasha is let out of the room! possibly 2 more like this then normal format lol. Also no stories are discontinued! ️ ️